Hopping through the Vineyards
South Styrian Wine Area
Autumn in Austria is simply wonderful and the Oldies have been out picking mushrooms and collecting walnuts every chance they get. I’ve always thought they were a pair of nutters alright.
And autumn, of course, couldn’t be a better time to visit the South Styrian wine area, which is something the Dynamic Duo had been planning to do for yonks. Even I was game, thinking that it could be quite interesting to visit a couple of local vineyards. But what’s the first thing they do on our arrival? Visit a brewery!
I was amazed to learn that, somewhere amongst all those vineyards, hops are also grown extensively down here. The terrain and climate make for ideal growing conditions and the quality of the hops is supposedly excellent. In fact, many of the large breweries in Bavaria source their hops here. Who would have thought?
Another surprising fact I gleaned from our tour of the small museum at the brewery is that there are strong concentrations of female hormones in the hop flowers. In days gone by, the women who picked the flowers by hand absorbed these hormones through their skin. To cut a long story short, nine months after harvest time, one could usually count on a baby boom. Now there’s a story with a hoppy ending!
I was quite taken aback by the crazy-sounding varieties of beers produced by this small craft brewery, diebrauerei Leutschach. Their regular and seasonal offerings include ginseng beer, horseradish beer, pumpkin beer and, of course, the inevitable wine beer. Judging by how fast the samples were disappearing, they obviously taste a lot better than they sound!
We were lucky enough to hit Leutschach on the weekend of their harvest festival. The parade through town was colourful and fun, although I could have lived without the brass bands. Humans, please, must you? And you think we seagulls make a racket! It was charming however, to see locals of all ages, participants and spectators alike, kitted out in their traditional costumes. Her Ladyship, true to form, only had eyes for the immaculately restored tractors that were pulling the floats. Although, come to think of it, I thought I saw her cast more than just the occasional glance in the direction of those hairy, lederhosen-clad legs…
As we drove through the vineyards, it was lovely to see groups of happy people gathered around roadside stands selling wine and roast chestnuts. I suppose that’s to be expected, with the time of the year that’s in it. There were some unexpected sights too, though. I did a double take when I spotted a herd of water buffalo. Hops in the vineyards and water buffalo on the pastures. This part of the country is certainly full of surprises!
I was glad to see that the scary bird scarers, the Klapotec that I had first come across in Jeruzalem in Slovenia, known on this side of the border as Klapotetz, were not in operation, so I was able to relax along with the Oldies on the terrace of the Buschenschank Repolusk in Glanz an der Weinstraße. According to His Lordship, a Buschenschank is basically an eatery attached to a winery. By the looks of it, they don’t expect you to wear your finery. Which is just as well, the way the Oldies were turned out! They certainly looked like they were enjoying the local wines, and the platters of local cold meats, sausages, cheeses and home-made spreads looked yummy. For once, however, my eyes were drawn away from the food by the beautiful sight of the sun slowly setting over the vineyards. Heavenly!
The Wingless Wonders didn’t need any excuse to go back down to the South Styrian wine area again a few days later. This time we went for a stroll on the slow, or rather, SLO road to Slovenia. Actually, we walked along, rather than to Slovenia, with Austria on one side of the road, Slovenia on the other.
I don’t think I’ve ever done so much border hopping in one day. It was often hard to keep track of which country we were in. With the local dialects, Slovene and Styrian, sharing some words, at times it was only the spelling that gave the game away.
On both sides of the border, the harvest was still in full swing. After my years in France, it was a novelty to see grapes being harvested only by hand. Then again, these slopes are steep so it’s understandable. And when I say steep, I mean steep: up to 75 percent gradient!
No wonder the advice down here, in whatever language, is to ‘take your time’.
