Vienna in a glass of wine: Wiener Gemischter Satz

I became interested in the Austrian, but especially Viennese, wines a few weeks ago, when my wife arrived in the capital city of Austria and she asked me what kind of wine she should buy me. As I didn't know many Austrian wines, I only heard of Gruner Veltiner, I started documenting about the traditional varieties and the Austrian classification system. So I discovered Wiener Gemischter Satz.

What is Wiener Gemischter Satz? A Viennese wine lover would respond that it is Vienna's most honest, direct and traditional expression of terroir. And he or she could not be more right.

Above all, Gemischter Satz is a traditional Viennese style of wine making, the name itself refers to how the wine is produced. Gemischter Satz, word by word, means Mixed Style. It refers to a field blend, where several varieties of grapes are planted, harvested and pressed together. This traditional style of wine is typical for small vineyards from the country side. There isn't a grape variety that predominates, but several, planted and gathered together all at once, usually on the same day. This is why Wiener Gemischter Satz has in componence grapes that where in different stages of development. That's why a Wiener Gemischter Satz prevails terroir's expression and not so much the characteristics of a particular grape variety.

How many varieties are part of a Wiener Gemischter Satz? Three to twenty! Most wine makers do not specify on the label the varieties of grapes from which they obtained the wine. And if they do, the proportions of that Gemischter Satz are not disclosed. Probably not even the winemakers themselves know exactly. This is why Wiener Gemischter Satz is not an appellation of controlled origin wine. The only particularity that I noticed is that only white wines are being used: Neuburger, Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Traminer etc.

Traditionally, Wiener Gemischter Satz wines are served in Heuriger, the traditional Viennese wine-tavern. In 1960, after the introduction of the classification system with appellation of controlled origin, Vienna wine makers began to abandon this traditional way of producing wine. Wiener Gemischter Satz wines returned in the early 2000 when several producers started to release wines under the name Wiener Gemischter Satz. To sustain this tradition, four wine producers in Vienna (Fritz Wieninger, Richard Zahel, Michael Edlmoser and Rainer Christ) joined together and formed the group Wien Wein. In an attempt to establish a quality standard for such traditional wines, the Wien Wein group proposed several rules that must met in order to talk about a genuine Wiener Gemischter Satz.