We had been to Vienna before in December of 2013, so this time we decided to go wine tasting in their wine region. Our tour guide was a lovely gentleman named Tom who drove us about an hour out of Vienna in the Wachau Valley. The winery’s are family owned and consist of 50-60 families. They use a Viennese blend and 80% of the wines stay local. They produce almost all white wines of a dry Riesling blend. Because of the temperatures it’s hard to grow the red and purple grapes to produce any reds. There are vines growing up the side of a hill known as The Hill of a 1000 Buckets. During picking season workers go up and down and fill their buckets with grapes.

After going to a couple of wineries, we went to the medieval town of Durnstein. Little tasting rooms, restaurants and beer gardens dotted the cobblestone streets. In the middle of town was a Catholic Church with a blue steeple. It was explained to me that the color of blue cannot be used for that purpose because it is used for the Greek Orthodox churches as well as Mosques. The only other one is in Bratislava which I also saw, but didn’t think anything of it at the time. For some reason they were allowed to keep it that way. And that was something I never knew.

Then we left there and went down to the Malat Hotel and Winery. We were smack dab in the middle of the vineyard. Anna and Alexis were our gracious hosts who would do anything for you. Wilma was the wonderful lady who made breakfast. She has quite an extensive album collection. She told me I could pick out one and she would play it during breakfast. Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd was the music selection that morning. Over looking the vineyard is the Stift Gottweig Benedictine Monastary. 45 monks live there and it was established in 1072. One of the buildings is used as a B&B, but you must obey their rules. Will be on the road again soon.