Südsteiermark

SÜDSTEIERMARK is the largest winegrowing region in the Steiermark with 2,563 hectares under vines. It is home to many wine estates of various sizes, all producing top-quality wines to an extremely consistent degree. At first glance, the land looks like a small, densely interwoven, compact & orderly garden – attractive to visitor & resident alike for its beauty, the mood that is one moment filled with the sun shining in diagonally, then a moment later by mists rising between the hills.

The photogenic wine country is one of the most beautiful and inviting wine regions in Europe with its wild, hilly viticultural landscape – a refreshment for the eyes & for the soul.

Viticulture is truly a hard day’s work here, because most of the vines are growing on extremely steep slopes, where one must work almost entirely by hand; mechanical help is hardly possible.

However, it is precisely this agriculture, which involves a great deal of effort, that guarantees individual wines, because every winegrower in southern Styria has to work out his own concept for his slopes and cultivation areas. He can never rely on the quick and easy approaches that are commonplace elsewhere, where thousands of vines are planted across a vast plain.

Sauvignon Blanc with a cultivated area of 21% was developed as the primary variety of the region, thanks to continuously progressive teamwork on the part of the winegrowers. Today, these wines constitute a memorable episode in the saga of the world’s finest Sauvignons. Welschriesling follows with 16.5%, then Weissburgunder with 11.4%, Muskateller with just under 10% and Morillon with 8.6% of the cultivated area. Besides these, one can still find small parcels of Riesling & Grauburgunder – and even some Scheurebe.