The climate around Lake Neusiedl is perfect for the locally grown grape varieties. The Lake Neusiedl-Seewinkel National Park also help to ensure that world-class wines are grown in this region. The region's intact nature, the long Pannonian days of sun and the lakes which act as temperature reservoirs, guarantee top wines from Illmitz year after year.
Mildly spicy with a light, fruity acidity might be one way of describing the Pinot Blanc and Welschriesling wines of the region. The full-bodied reds, by contrast, never fail to impress with their opulent fruitiness, elegance and full body. Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch are the preferred grapes for red wines.

World-class wines from Illmitz
Illmitz is internationally recognised for its dessert wines. The edible mould and the microclimate around the lake play a key role in this. However, it is Illmitz winegrowers' knowledge of dessert wines that ensure global awards time and time again.

  • 4 times Wine Maker of the Year
  • 18 times Wine World Champion
  • 1 times Sparkling Wine World Champion

The miracle of Botrytis
Usually the word "mould" has negative connotations in everyday parlance. In viticulture, however, there is a welcome form of mould that gives white grape juice a perfume of spicy honey with a dash of boiled cabbage. "Botrytis Cinerea" mould is the cause of grape rot. Depending on the maturation stage, a differentiation is made between the dreaded form of grey mould and the welcome form of the "noble" rot.

The climate plays a key role in the formation and growth of the "noble" rot. There is rapid fungal development if there is continuous wet weather with warm temperatures and high humidity in late summer and autumn. If these periods are followed by long periods of fair weather, the Botrytis fungus draws water out of the grapes and, at the same time, concentrates the must content. We have the miracle of "noble" rot to thank for fine wines, such as Auslese late harvest wines, what are known as Austrian "Ausbruch" wines and drier late-harvest Trockenbeerenauslese wines.

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