I pulled over somewhere above Gamlitz because I had no choice. The road had been climbing through vineyards for a while, and then the whole of Südsteiermark opened up at once: rows of vines pinned to slopes so steep they looked painted on, a red church tower down in the valley, and the soft blue line of the Slovenian hills sitting right on the horizon. Somewhere in the vines a Klapotetz was turning in the wind, the wooden rattle the locals use to keep the birds off the grapes, knocking out its slow, uneven beat. People compare this corner of Austria to Tuscany, and standing there I stopped arguing with them, I can see the comparison.
I came to Südsteiermark in April 2024 to judge Sauvignon Blanc at the Sauvignon Selection by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, and I stayed for everything around the wine: the farmhouse lunches, the cellar visits, the drive itself. So let me hand you the trip I wish someone had handed me. Where the road goes, which cellars are worth pulling over for, what to eat when you get there, and the castles and viewpoints worth the detour between tastings.
A quick note before we set off. This is the trip, not the terroir lesson. I wrote the deeper explainer separately, why these hills grow Sauvignon Blanc this well, how the DAC districts work, what the soils are doing, in my Südsteiermark terroir piece. Here I just want to drive you through it and get you into the right cellars.
The Südsteirische Weinstraße, Austria's prettiest drive
The Südsteirische Weinstraße is the spine of the region, and it is the reason most people fall for Südsteiermark in the first place. It was first laid out in the 1950s, and it strings together the wine villages south of Leibnitz: Ehrenhausen an der Weinstraße, Straß, Gamlitz, Arnfels, Oberhaag and Leutschach an der Weinstraße, roughly 25 kilometres of it, almost all inside the Naturpark Südsteiermark. The road does not run flat for a single minute. It climbs and drops along the ridgelines, and every bend hands you another postcard: terraced vines, a scatter of white farmhouses, a Klapotetz rattling on a pole, and the valley falling away beneath you.
Give it a full day and do not rush. The joy of this drive is the pulling over, not the arriving. Most of the estates on it sit within a few minutes of one another, so you can taste, eat, walk off lunch on a vineyard path, and taste again, all inside a stretch of road you could otherwise cover in half an hour.
The border is the whole point
Here is the thing nobody tells you before you go: in Südsteiermark the Slovenian border is not the edge of the map, it is the view. The same range of hills simply carries on to the south, where it is called Štajerska, Slovenian Styria, and the vineyards, the soils and the grapes do not notice the line at all. Stand on almost any high vineyard and half of what you are looking at is another country.
The most photographed proof of this is the Herzerlstraße, the heart-shaped road, at Špičnik just over the Slovenian side, about ten minutes from Gamlitz. A single-lane wine road loops through the vines in the exact shape of a heart, and from the little Dreisiebner viewpoint above it the whole heart lays itself out below you. It has become a social-media pilgrimage, and for once the real thing is better than the photos. Tement, one of the estates below, farms on both sides of the border and bottles its Slovenian fruit under a separate label, which tells you exactly how little the frontier means to the wine.
Five cellars worth pulling over for
You could spend a week working through Südsteiermark's cellars and still leave names on the list. These five are the ones I would send anyone to first: two of them I sat down and tasted through myself, and I have flagged those where they come. Every one of them is a short hop off the Weinstraße.
1. Weingut Gross, Ratsch an der Weinstraße
Gross is where my Südsteiermark started, and it is where I would send you first. The family has made wine here since 1907, and today it is Martina and Johannes Gross, the sixth generation, steering a roughly 37-hectare estate that is planted entirely to white grapes: Sauvignon Blanc, Gelber Muskateller, Weißburgunder, Welschriesling and Morillon. Their heartland is the Ried Nussberg, a terraced amphitheatre of vines with slopes that reach 85 percent, and it produces Sauvignon Blanc with the kind of tension and length that reminds you why this region gets mentioned alongside the great whites of the world. I tasted here and ate here, and both stayed with me. Contact.
- Johannes Gross in the family cellar at Ratsch an der Weinstraße.
- Weingut Gross Ried Nussberg Stauder 2019, Sauvignon Blanc, Südsteiermark 96/100
- Weingut Gross Perz Gelber Muskateller 2011, Südsteiermark 96/100
- Weingut Gross Ried Nussberg Preschnigg 2019, Sauvignon Blanc, Südsteiermark 97/100
- Weingut Gross Welschriesling Pro. Steirerland 2021, Südsteiermark 95/100
2. Weingut Tement, Berghausen
If one estate put Südsteiermark on the world map, it is Tement. Manfred Tement and his sons farm the legendary Ried Zieregg, a plateau of ancient shell and coral limestone sitting between 330 and 490 metres, looking straight over into Slovenia. The Zieregg Sauvignon Blanc has been named among the hundred cult wines of the world, and the family farms the Slovenian slope of the same hill too, bottling it separately as Fosilni Breg since 2009. It is polished, ambitious wine in a spectacular setting, and the tasting room and terrace make the most of that view. Contact.
3. Weingut Sattlerhof, Gamlitz
Sattlerhof is the address for people who want the full Südsteiermark day in one place. The Sattler family has grown wine at Sernau near Gamlitz since 1887, they farm around 40 hectares organically, and their grand cru vineyards Kranachberg and Pfarrweingarten give some of the most serious whites in the region. Siblings Anna and Markus Sattler now run it, and the estate is far more than a cellar: there is a hotel, a fine-dining restaurant and a relaxed Wirtshaus, so you can taste, sleep and eat exceptionally well without ever moving the car. Contact.
4. Weingut Lackner-Tinnacher, Steinbach bei Gamlitz
Lackner-Tinnacher is one of the oldest names on this road, family-owned since 1770, and one of the most quietly impressive. Katharina Tinnacher took the reins in 2013 and converted the whole estate to certified organic farming from the 2016 vintage. Her roughly 28 hectares sit at 400 to 500 metres across Gamlitz and Kitzeck-Sausal, and the wines are precise, mineral and built to age. This is the stop for anyone who wants to understand what Südsteiermark tastes like when it is farmed with real patience. Contact.
5. Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof, Sernauberg
Riegelnegg Olwitschhof is where I sat down for a proper overview tasting, and it turned into one of my favourite afternoons of the trip. The estate sits about four kilometres southwest of Gamlitz on the Sernauberg, its 14 hectares of vines running for two kilometres along the ridge, and Roland Riegelnegg pours Sauvignon Blanc, Muskateller and Weißburgunder with real warmth. This is no quiet country cellar punching below its weight: their Sauvignon Blanc was voted world champion by a 40-strong international jury in 2021. Tasting through the range with the family, that result made complete sense. Contact.
- Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof, the estate on the Sernauberg above Gamlitz.
- Roland Riegelnegg, our host, welcoming me to the estate.
- Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof Ried Gamlitzberg Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Südsteiermark 96/100
- Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof Ried Sernauberg Sauvignon Blanc 2016, Südsteiermark 95/100
- Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof Ried Sernauberg Sauvignon Blanc 2012, Südsteiermark 96/100
A seat at the Buschenschank
You cannot understand Südsteiermark from the tasting bench alone. You have to sit down at a Buschenschank, the traditional tavern a wine grower is allowed to run from the farm, serving its own wine with cold food only. It is the warmest, most honest way to eat in the region, usually on a terrace with a vineyard falling away below the table.
What lands in front of you is a Brettljäuse, a wooden board of cured meats, farmhouse cheeses, spreads and pickles, almost always including something made with the dark, nutty Styrian pumpkin-seed oil the region is famous for. And then, if you are lucky, the sweet things arrive: baskets of Krapfen and Strauben, fritters and ribbons of fried dough dusted thick with icing sugar, still warm. I had a spread exactly like that at Gross, the branded wooden box on the table, the little tasting cups lined up in a row, the fried pastries steaming under the sugar. It is the moment the whole trip makes sense: this is not a region that performs hospitality, it just does it.
- Baskets of warm Krapfen and Strauben under a thick dusting of icing sugar, the Buschenschank sweets at Weingut Gross.
- A Brettljause board of cured meats, farmhouse cheeses, pumpkin-seed spreads and pickles.
Castles above the vines
The vineyards are the headline, but the hills above Leibnitz have been growing and storing wine for the best part of a thousand years, and two castles make that history easy to see.
Schloss Seggau, above Leibnitz
Schloss Seggau crowns a wooded hill just south of Leibnitz, its upper castle built by the archbishops of Salzburg in the 12th century. Two things make it worth the climb. The first is the Bischöflicher Weinkeller, the Episcopal wine cellar, built at the end of the 17th century and running an astonishing 75 metres long, one of the largest historic wine cellars in Europe. The second is the Lapidarium, a wall studded with Roman carved stones, one of the most important collections of its kind north of Italy, a reminder that people were already making wine on these slopes when Rome ran the place.
Schloss Gamlitz, in the heart of the wine villages
Down among the vineyards, Schloss Gamlitz is the oldest castle in Südsteiermark, first built between 1111 and 1113. Wine was central to it from the very beginning, when the monastery pressed its mass wine here, and the estate still keeps a 450-year-old vaulted cellar beneath it. Today it is run as a wine estate by Domaines Kilger and houses a wine museum, so you can walk straight from the history into a glass of the present.
More than the wine
When you want a break from the cellars, Südsteiermark has plenty to fill the gaps. Kitzeck im Sausal, up in the Sausal hills near Leibnitz, is the highest wine-growing village in Austria at 564 metres, and the vineyards around it climb on gradients that touch 90 percent. Nearer Leibnitz lies the Sulm See (lake), an easy green place to swim or walk on a hot afternoon, and the Frauenberg above Wagna, with its pilgrimage church, was a Celtic hilltop settlement long before it was anything else.
For a real sense of how deep the roots go, there is Flavia Solva, the only Roman city ever built in Styria, granted its city rights around 70 AD under the emperor Vespasian, with a small Roman museum on the site today. And all through the region, on ridgelines and at the edges of vineyards, you keep meeting the Klapotetz: a wooden windmill-like rattle, ash body and pine wings, traditionally raised on the days of Saint Jacob and Saint Anne in late July to scare the starlings off the ripening grapes. It is the sound of the region, and it has become one of its symbols.
The wines I brought home
I tasted a great deal on this trip, and if only I could have brought all of them home. These were the wines that went home with me.
Proof I did my homework
Weingut Tement Ried Sulz Morillon 2021
95/100
Weingut Tement Ried Grassnitzberg Riff 2021
96/100
Weingut Sattlerhof Ried Alter Kranachberg 2021
94/100
Weingut Sattlerhof Ried Pfarrweingarten Morillon 2019
96/100
F&S Regele Weissburgunder unfiltriert 2020
95/100
Potzinger Ried Sulz Sauvignon Blanc 'Joseph' 2019
95/100
Jöbstl Ried Sernauberg Gelber Muskateller
94/100
Wein & Wohl Gallunder Sauvignon Blanc
92/100
Wein & Wohl Gallunder Ried Wielitsch Sauvignon Blanc Reserve
96/100
Weingut Dillinger Ried Hoch Pössnitzberg 2021
95/100
Weingut Dillinger Ried Leutschach Morillon 2022
96/100
Brolli Arkadenhof Ried Hoch Pössnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc
94/100
Erzherzog Johann Ried Grassnitzberg Weissburgunder
94/100
Leopold Dietrich Sauvignon Blanc 2023
94/100Proof I did my homework: Weingut Tement Ried Sulz Morillon 2021 (95/100) · Weingut Tement Ried Grassnitzberg Riff 2021 (96/100) · Weingut Sattlerhof Ried Alter Kranachberg 2021 (94/100) · Weingut Sattlerhof Ried Pfarrweingarten Morillon 2019 (96/100) · F&S Regele Weissburgunder unfiltriert 2020 (95/100) · Potzinger Ried Sulz Sauvignon Blanc 'Joseph' 2019 (95/100) · Jöbstl Ried Sernauberg Gelber Muskateller (94/100) · Wein & Wohl Gallunder Sauvignon Blanc (92/100) · Wein & Wohl Gallunder Ried Wielitsch Sauvignon Blanc Reserve (96/100) · Weingut Dillinger Ried Hoch Pössnitzberg 2021 (95/100) · Weingut Dillinger Ried Leutschach Morillon 2022 (96/100) · Brolli Arkadenhof Ried Hoch Pössnitzberg Sauvignon Blanc (94/100) · Erzherzog Johann Ried Grassnitzberg Weissburgunder (94/100) · Leopold Dietrich Sauvignon Blanc 2023 (94/100).
Worth the drive south
Südsteiermark asks a little more of you than the famous regions do. It sits in Austria's far south, the roads are slow by design, and you will spend a lot of the day climbing in and out of valleys. That is exactly why it stays this good. The reward is a corner of the wine world where world-class Sauvignon Blanc, a thousand years of cellar history, farmhouse tables loaded with cured meat and warm Krapfen, and a view that runs clean over into Slovenia all sit within the same slow, green half-hour of road. Take the whole day. Take two. This is a region that rewards the driver who keeps pulling over.
People also ask
Any questions related to this topic? Maybe you can find your answer here. Click here!
Which wineries should I visit in Südsteiermark?
For a first Südsteiermark wine trip, build your route around five estates on and just off the Südsteirische Weinstraße: Weingut Gross at Ratsch, Weingut Tement at Berghausen, Sattlerhof and Lackner-Tinnacher around Gamlitz, and Riegelnegg Olwitschhof on the Sernauberg. Together they run from world-famous cult names to family estates with award-winning Sauvignon Blanc, and all sit within a short drive of one another.
What is the Südsteirische Weinstraße?
The Südsteirische Weinstraße, the South Styrian Wine Road, is a roughly 25-kilometre scenic route through the wine villages south of Leibnitz, from Ehrenhausen to Leutschach, running along the Slovenian border inside the Naturpark Südsteiermark. First laid out in the 1950s, it winds over steep vine-covered hills often compared to Tuscany and links most of the region's top cellars.
What wine is Südsteiermark known for?
Südsteiermark is Austria's benchmark region for Sauvignon Blanc, which reaches world-class quality on its steep limestone and slate slopes. Around 90 percent of the vineyard is planted to white grapes, with Gelber Muskateller and Morillon (the local name for Chardonnay) alongside the Sauvignon Blanc, all bottled under the Südsteiermark DAC.
What is a Buschenschank?
A Buschenschank is a traditional Styrian tavern run by a wine grower, licensed to serve the estate's own wine with cold food only. A typical visit means a Brettljäuse board of cured meats, cheeses and pumpkin-seed spreads, often with warm fried Krapfen or Strauben, eaten on a terrace overlooking the grower's own vineyards.
Where is the heart-shaped vineyard in Südsteiermark?
The famous heart-shaped vineyard road, the Herzerlstraße, is at Špičnik, just across the border on the Slovenian side, about ten minutes by car from Gamlitz. The heart is best seen from the Dreisiebner viewpoint above it, and it has become one of the most photographed spots in the whole Südsteiermark and Štajerska wine landscape.
Resources
- Austrian Wine, the country's official wine body, on the Südsteiermark DAC, its districts, grapes and Sauvignon Blanc: https://www.austrianwine.com/our-wine/winegrowing-regions/steiermark-styria/suedsteiermark
- Steiermark Tourism on the Südsteirische Weinstraße, the Naturpark Südsteiermark and the region's wine villages: https://www.steiermark.com/en/Suedsteiermark
- Weingut Gross, the sixth-generation estate at Ratsch an der Weinstraße, home of the Ried Nussberg: https://www.gross.at/
- Weingut Tement, the cult Südsteiermark estate on the Ried Zieregg above the Slovenian border: https://www.tement.at/
- Weingut Sattlerhof, the organic estate, hotel and restaurant at Sernau near Gamlitz: https://www.sattlerhof.at/
- Weingut Lackner-Tinnacher, family-owned since 1770 and certified organic, at Steinbach bei Gamlitz: https://www.tinnacher.at/
- Weingut Riegelnegg Olwitschhof, the Sernauberg estate whose Sauvignon Blanc was voted world champion in 2021: https://www.riegelnegg.at/
- Schloss Seggau above Leibnitz, home of the Episcopal wine cellar and the Roman Lapidarium: https://www.seggau.com/
- Schloss Gamlitz, the oldest castle in Südsteiermark, now a wine estate and museum run by Domaines Kilger: https://www.schlossgamlitz.com/
- Sauvignon Selection by Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, the competition behind the April 2024 judging trip: https://sauvignonselection.com/en/
Margot van Lieshout
Wine marketeer, sales expert with over 20 years in the trade, public speaker and international wine judge. Thousands of wines scored from Steiermark to Ningxia, and a trade she knows from the inside out. Wine with Margot is where she helps wine brands tell the stories that sell them.
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