Vienna Woods Vineyard Heuriger with Scenic View (Reclaiming Heimat) #Kahlenberg

Vienna Woods Vineyard Heuriger with Scenic View (Reclaiming Heimat) #Kahlenberg
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WHAT an incredibly beautiful place, especially in autumn: The vineyards of the legendary Vienna Woods, the Wienerwald! Just look at these pictures I took on this weekend’s walk through the Viennese vineyards. We were having a glass of new wine in a sublime fall setting at the Heuriger Wailand 1 on the Kahlenberg Hill. Overlooking Nussberg hill, the panoramic view of the city and the Danube river are simply gorgeous. And it’s only a few bus stops away from the city center! 

Vienna woods vineyards on the way down from Kahlenberg to Grinzing with this picturesque fall view of the city.
Vienna woods vineyards on the way down from Kahlenberg to Grinzing with this picturesque fall view of the city.

Sigmund Freud also loved to hike and wander around in the Vienna Woods on weekends. The whole family dressed up in traditional Austrian garb and set out foraging for mushrooms. But as Martha, Freud’s wife, didn’t trust her husband’s skills in differentiating poisonous from edible mushrooms, she would rather buy her mushrooms at the market.2

Although my family and I didn’t find any mushrooms, we saw white and red grapes waiting to be picked. Since they had plenty of sun, they were very sweet.

White grapes in a Vienna Woods vineyard with the city in the distance, as seen from the Kahlenberg hill in autumn.
White grapes in a Vienna Woods vineyard with the city in the distance, as seen from the Kahlenberg hill in autumn.

Eventually, in the midst of all this peaceful beauty, you’ll pass by a few tavern-like establishments filled with locals drinking, laughing and maybe even singing. These Viennese institutions are called Heurigen, meaning “new wine.” It’s where the winemakers serve the current year’s wine accompanied by different simple snacks like cabanossi, blood sausages, speck, Liptauer, and the like. In some places, there’s even folk music.3

Red grapes in a Vienna Woods vineyard with the city in the background, on the way down from the Kahlenberg hill to Grinzing.
Red grapes in a Vienna Woods vineyard with the city in the background, on the way down from the Kahlenberg hill to Grinzing.

More importantly, the Heurigen stand for the concept of Gemütlichkeit, a state of well-being, belonging, and social acceptance. Since to some, this often nationalistic glorifications of the past sound rather scary, a few young, modern, more cosmopolitan Heurigen have sprung up in the last decades. The lovely Heuriger Wailand is one of them. These places reclaim the concept of Heimat, the German word denoting the relation of a human being toward a certain spatial social unit.

Not the Tel Aviv beach, just a blue table with the Austrian Almdudler soft drink at Heuriger Wailand in the vineyards bordering the Vienna Woods at Kahlenberg hill.
Not the Tel Aviv beach, just a blue table with the Austrian Almdudler soft drink at Heuriger Wailand in the vineyards bordering the Vienna Woods at Kahlenberg hill.

Famous Austro-Hungarian writer Ödön von Horvath’s wrote a popular 1931 play, that cruelly unmasks the hypocrisy of the clichés of the Viennese Gemütlichkeit. It should come as no surprise that it bears no other title than Geschichten aus dem Wienerwald, or Tales from the Vienna Woods.

Autumn in the vineyards on Kahlenberg hill. Vienna and the Danube river in the distance.
Autumn in the vineyards on Kahlenberg hill. Vienna and the Danube river in the distance.

Therefore, choose your Heuriger wisely and don’t miss out on this charming scenery. As for me, if you haven’t guessed already, I love the Vienna Woods vineyards at Kahlenberg hill. It is indeed on my short list of best spots on this planet. Yes, that’s how stunning I think it can get there, when the Heuriger, the time, and the weather are right. Share this moment with people you love, and you’re in heaven.

Fall grape leaves on a bench at Heuriger Wailand on Kahlenberg hill in the Vienna Woods.
Fall grape leaves on a bench at Heuriger Wailand on Kahlenberg hill in the Vienna Woods.

It’s Easy to Get There:

Take the subway U4 to Heiligenstadt, get on the 38A bus to Kahlenberg, and there you are! Next, don’t waste too much time on the terrace and the panoramic view of Vienna. Start with the walk downhill, following the signs of hiking path #1 (Stadtwanderweg #1), to get eye level with the hilly vineyards overlooking Vienna and the Danube river. After a walk of about only fifteen minutes, you’ll reach the first in a series of Heurigen.

View of Vienna in autumn over the vineyards on Kahlenberg and Nussberg hill, looking towards the Danube river.
View of Vienna in autumn over the vineyards on Kahlenberg and Nussberg hill, looking towards the Danube river.

Alternatively, if you are too tired, or simply do not want to walk, take the tramway D till its final stop in Grinzing, where there is a little train that brings you up to all the Heurigen. This train is called the “Heurigen Express.” Or take your car, if you must, just don’t drink and drive.

Scenic view of the city and the Danube river from the vineyards at Kahlenberg hill in the Vienna Woods, where <a href="https://JewishVienneseFood.com/gruner-veltliner-wine/">Grüner Veltliner</a>, <a href="https://JewishVienneseFood.com/wiener-gemischter-satz-urban-vienyards/">Gemischter Satz</a>, Welschriesling, Chardonnay, and Zweigelt are typical.
Scenic view of the city and the Danube river from the vineyards at Kahlenberg hill in the Vienna Woods, where Grüner Veltliner, Gemischter Satz, Welschriesling, Chardonnay, and Zweigelt are typical.

Enjoy!

Heuriger Weingut Wailand
Kahlenberger Straße/ Corner Eisernenhandgasse/ H.-W.-Schimankoweg
1190 Wien (Austria)
Open from April to October

on Google maps (From the bus, via Heuriger Wailand, till the tramway stop.)

Screenshot from Google Maps. To go directly to Google’s map at this location click anywhere on this image.
Screenshot from Google Maps. To go directly to Google’s map at this location click anywhere on this image.

Don’t forget to have a look at my commented list of Vienna’s 14 Must-See Sights and Activities!

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Footnotes

  1. This is no paid endorsement or advertisement! Accordingly, I do not get paid to say that Heuriger Wailand is a beautiful spot even though I wish I could!
  2. And the only arguments the Freuds reportedly ever had was a culinary one, related to mushrooms. Both had strong opinions on whether one should cook porcini mushrooms with or without stems. (See Zu Tisch bei Sigmund Freud, by Katja Behling-Fischer – At Sigmund Freud’s Table: Lifestyle, Hospitality and Eating Habits of the Founder of Psychoanalysis.)
  3. The Heuriger has its own genre of music, the famous Schrammelmusik, a style of Viennese folk music, and the Wienerlied genre, literally “Viennese song.” Most noteworthy is the fantastic reinterpretation made by André Heller and Helmut Qualtinger. But to understand the lyrics, quite good Viennese German skills are a prerequisite!

Nino Shaya Weiss
Greetings, I am Nino Shaye Weiss, an unbridled foodnik kibbitzing (aka blogging) from Vienna, a place steeped in history and culture. The city of music and dreams, once loved and hated by Sigmund Freud, has been home to many celebrated Jewish figures, including Theodor Herzl, Gustav Mahler, Viktor Frankl, Martin Buber, Stefan Zweig, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Arnold Schoenberg, and Erich von Stroheim, among others. In my blog, I endeavor to pay tribute to these great figures as well as to the anonymous Jew of pre-Shoah Jewish Vienna by delving into memory's kitchen and celebrating their once-rich and diverse cuisine, now lost forever. From Italian and Hungarian influences to Bohemian and Galician, I explore the eclectic flavors and unique stories of this previously vibrant culinary tradition, often with a Freudian twist. Join me in my virtual kitchen as I offer a culinary armchair therapy for a fictional restaurant, and discover the delicious world of Jewish Viennese food…

2 Comments

  1. I hope you like this post. For a future post I’m looking for a Heuriger in Vienna that is lovely especially in spring time. With lovely big trees that blossom. Something straight out of an Erich von Stroheim movie. Can you help?

    1. You have a good taste! All in all, Wailand is my favorite, too.
      The Heuriger in the Kamaldulenserhof (a beautiful gothic building with an interesting history at the very end of Sievering) has a beautiful Streuobstwiese but unfortunately it seems to go in and out of business. It was last run by Weinbau Draginec.

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