FINE DINING Alain Weissgerber’s Taubenkobel If you’re staying at Burg Bernstein or visiting the southern end of Burgenland, don’t miss a meal at Csencsits (csencsits.at), where talented young chef Jürgen Csencsits does suave modern Pannonian dishes like goose foie gras with beets, cauliflowers, broccoli and apple; venison with a celeriac millefeuille; and baked pumpkin with kohlrabi and smoked trout. He loves cooking over a flame, which makes his creations deeply flavoured and modern. Another great address in the lower Burgenland is Ratschens Restaurant & Wohnothek (ratschen.at) in Deutsch Schützen. Come here for delicious regional dishes like goulash with homemade noodles and locally landed pikeperch with saffron risotto. WHAT TO SEE AND DO There is nowhere better to begin a tour of Burgenland than the charming wine-making town of Rust, one of the oldest and bestpreserved towns in the region, and a great place to wander. It was founded in the 14th century and eventually became a Royal Free City under the Hungarian crown in 1681. In addition to its pastelpainted houses, cobbled streets, lively cafes and wine cellars, the town is renowned for the stork nests that the birds build on local chimneys. Each year, the storks arrive in the middle of March, spend spring and most of summer in Burgenland, and then depart in the middle of August to winter in Africa. The storks are so beloved in Rust that the town has a special Storchenpflegestation (stork care unit for sick or injured birds.) From Rust, it’s a 20-minute drive to Eisenstadt, and the elegant custard-yellow Schloss Esterházy (esterhazy.at), the seat of one of Central Europe’s most distinguished noble families and one of Austria’s most beautiful Baroque palaces. Originally dating to 1371, the palace was sumptuously remodelled by Italian architects and artisans from 1663-1673. The most impressive room in the palace is the magnificent ballroom and concert hall named for Joseph Haydn, who worked for the Esterházys as court composer for nearly 40 years and wrote some of his most famous music here. An hour south of Eisenstadt, the Dazumal Museum (dazumalburgenland.at) in Bad Tatzmannsdorf offers a fascinating glimpse of traditional rural life in Burgenland with a village of reed-thatched, white-washed cottages furnished with antiques, handmade farm tools and kitchen equipment, and clothing. What’s perhaps most revealing of all here is that the village that surrounds it looks very little different from the museum itself, an indication of how attached Burgenlanders are to their distinctive identity and traditions. Cut through Hungary to reach the Nationalpark Neusiedler See- Seewinkel (nationalparkneusiedlersee.at), which is dedicated to preserving the unique flora and fauna of Burgenland and Neusiedler See. Several well-marked hiking paths through the thickets of reeds on the lake’s shore are a bird-lover’s delight and bring you into contact with the intriguingly different habitats protected by the park. Ten minutes from the park, the little village of Frauenkirchen (frauenkirchen.at) was once one of the so-called seven communities (Siebengemeinden) of Jews in Burgenland. Today, only a Jewish cemetery attests to this long history, and the village’s most imposing site is the Basilika, a beautiful Baroque church adjacent to a monastery where the active friars of the Franciscan Order look after more than 100,000 visitors and pilgrims who visit annually. VISTING VINEYARDS The best-known winery in Burgenland is Kracher (kracher.at), a family owned and run business in the village of Illmitz on the eastern banks of the Neusiedler See. This locale fosters ideal conditions for Botrytis cinerea, a fungus that shrivels the grapes, concentrating their sweetness, and it was the late Alois Kracher who put Burgenland in the spotlight with his sublime sweet wines, the most famous of which is Trockenbeerenauslese. Today the winery is run by his son Gerhard, the third generation of the family to make wine here. Tastings of Kracher wines are available by advance reservation – and as a rule of thumb, it’s best to confirm the availability and opening hours of tastings and visits to Burgenland wineries, as they are such small-scale operations. Among the highly recommended wineries that can be visited without an appointment, one of the most accessible is Feiler- Artinger (feiler-artinger.at), a biodynamic wine producer in the delightful town of Rust in the middle of the west bank of the Neusiedler See. Famed for its Ruster Ausbruch sweet wine, it also makes beautiful table wines Umathum (umathum.at) is best known for the elegant reds it makes from zweigelt grapes grown on 60ha near the Neusiedler See. Its 1995 Trockenbeerenauslese Welschriesling, a sumptuous dessert wine, also received a 100 point Robert Parker rating in The Wine Advocate this year. “Blaufränkisch is in our genes,” says winemaker Georg Prieler of the local grape. “We know this variety’s moods and demands. Blaufränkisch in not an easy variety: it’s capricious, challenging and stubborn. For me, it is one of the few varieties in the world that perfectly balances two elements: energy and clarity,” he adds, explaining why he and his family make some of the most celebrated red wines in Austria at Weingut Prieler (prieler.ar) in Schützen am Gebirge. These beautiful organic reds of great character pair brilliantly with grilled beef and lamb. “Silvia Heinrich (weingut-heinrich.at) is the most successful female winemaker in Austria,” says Falstaff, Austria’s prestigious food-and-wine magazine. Heinrich’s passion is also the quirky blaufränkisch grape, from which she produces some exceptionally sophisticated wines, including Ried Goldberg Reserve. This wine is made from grapes grown in the oldest local vineyards in Deutschkreutz on vines that are more than 70 years old and planted in deep clay soil. These carefully selected grapes yield a wine that’s heady with dark berries, fine cassis notes and dark cherries. Since he only makes a limited number of bottles at his small winery in Grosshöflein, Moric (moric.at), the dry elegant red wines of winemaker Roland Velich have developed a cult following. Visit him by advance reservation only. When Burgenland was part of Hungary before the First World War, many vineyards were planted with furmint grape vines, which produce exceptionally fresh white wines. Michael Wenzel (michaelwenzel.at) has revived this local tradition and is producing some intriguing natural wines (spontaneous fermentation with no added yeast and no filtering) at his winery in Rust. Also in Rust, the Triebaumer family winery (triebaumer.com; visits by appointment only) produces a lovely furmint and other white wines of real distinction, including chardonnay and sauvignon blanc. WHERE TO SHOP Since many small Burgenland vineyards don’t sell outside Austria, it’s worth picking up a bottle or two of a favourite new quaff while you’re here. Perhaps the region’s best wine shop is Weinwerk (weinwerk.at) on the main street in Neusiedl. With more than 650 wines from some 150 Burgenland producers, there are also around 30 bottles poured by the glass alongside simple plates of charcuterie and cheese in the shop’s bar area. Upstairs, there’s also a wide selection of regional foodstuffs, including jams, preserved vegetables, spices and herbs. You can also buy wines from the Esterházy vineyards at Schloss Weingut Esterházy. 88 NetJets
