Schilcher, sparkling wine & presshouses nestled into the hillsides: Central Europe’s most imortant rosé region..
The winegrowing region Weststeiermark is special for two features. With only 546 hectares under vines, it is the smallest winegrowing region in the Steiermark (and thus one of the smallest of all Austria), and it produces a unique and autochthonous wine in the form of Schilcher, grown there in the majority of vineyards. Many other winegrowing regions are envious of Weststeiermark, because:
Schilcher can only be vinified here,
and here only in this manner.
A winegrowing legacy of millenia
Weststeiermark is ancient wine country and was, like all the other winegrowing regions of Steiermark, also cultivated by the Romans, as well as the Celts and the Illyrians living there before the Romans came.
Alpine wine
The vineyards of Weststeiermark extend like a long and narrow band from the foothills of the Koralpe Range and the Reinischkogel southward to the Slovenian border. Some parcels begin on the slopes of the hills at 420 metres above sea level and end atop the hills at an elevation of about 600 metres – among the highest-situated vineyards in the state and in Austria.
Rustic, lovely & unspoiled
On the way from Ligist in the north of the region, via Sankt Stefan ob Stainz to Deutschlandsberg & Eibiswald, steep slopes with small, picturesque cellarhouses line the curvy roads – the Kellerstöckel – as they are called, built into the hillsides – is the regional variant of the cellar house & winery of smalltime growers.
Taking a detour to villages such as Greisdorf, Gundersdorf, Wildbach or Wies leaves vivid impressions of the traditional, Styrian foundation upon which viticultural in the region is built. Weststeiermark is a modern winegrowing region with an extremely rustic setting, a unique legacy in world viticulture.
The wind blows in from the hills, a blessing for the vines & the wines
The vineyards of Weststeiermark extend like a long and narrow band, on the foothills of the Alps. There are four Ortswein districtsLigist, Stainz, Deutschlandsberg and Eibiswald.
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