There is a moment every June when I feel it again: Vienna moves outdoors. The Schanigärten fill up, the courtyards breathe out, and somewhere among the vineyards at the edge of the city, the Heurigen season truly begins.
To me, a Heuriger has never been just a place to eat. It is a form of being together that, I think, only exists here in quite this way. You sit under old chestnut or walnut trees, drink young wine straight from the grower, and take from the buffet whatever you feel like: cold cuts, Liptauer cheese spread, a piece of cheese, fresh bread. No menu, no hurry, no waiter rushing you along. The custom goes back to a decree by Emperor Joseph II in 1784, which allowed Vienna’s winegrowers to sell their own wine and simple food without a licence. What was once a legal right has become a culture. Since 2024, Vienna’s Heurigen culture has been recognised as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and once you have sat under the trees on a mild June evening, you understand why.
Three addresses I keep coming back to
For anyone setting out to explore this themselves, I like to offer three names to start with. Bioweinbau Obermann in Grinzing is a family business now in its fifth generation, set a little above the village among the vineyards: small, personal, more conversation than spectacle. Not far away, in Neustift am Walde, the Zimmermann family has run their Weinhof since 1828. The natural garden between the vines and their own wines make it an address that has stayed true to itself for decades, and that is exactly what I value about it.
And then there are the pop-up Heurigen on the Nussberg, my personal favourite for the first warm evenings: Buschenschanken that set their tables right among the vines. Wieninger, Mayer am Nussberg, Monte Nucum, Windischbauer, each with a view over the Danube and the city, with deck chairs, sun umbrellas and wine from their own estate. They only open in fine weather, from April into early November, and I find it loveliest late in the afternoon, when the light falls flat across the vines and the city slowly blurs beneath you.
Down from the Kahlenberg to Nussdorf
For anyone who wants to make more of it than a single visit, I recommend our wine walk: down on foot from the Kahlenberg through the vineyards of the Nussberg to Nussdorf. A route that, I believe, is only possible quite like this in Vienna. It takes a good hour, entirely downhill, past the Buschenschanken, with the Danube coming into view again and again, and there is time along the way for a stop with one of the winegrowers. Exactly how such an evening unfolds, with its stations and alternatives, I have laid out in detail in our recommendation, “An Evening on the Kahlenberg”.
Enough for a beginning
That is really all it takes to find your way into the Heurigen season: a free evening, no need for sturdy shoes, and a willingness to let yourself drift a little. On request, my team and I are also happy to accompany you personally through this Viennese wine culture, arranged individually for you, your family or your group. Do write to us if that appeals to you.
I wish you a summer full of such evenings, under old trees, with young wine in your glass.
Martha
