wein.plus
Attention
You are using an old browser that may not function as expected.
For a better, safer browsing experience, please upgrade your browser.

Log in Become a Member

Leo Hillinger is a jack-of-all-trades. Even his critics were impressed by the way he had a new building erected in the middle of the vineyards on Lake Neusiedl against all odds. The fans anyway: in the tasting room with a view over the vast landscape, the TV report of the opening flickers continuously, star guest Roberto Blanco gives interviews in an endless loop. But already the huge cellar hall no longer meets the requirements. "It's already too small," sighs winemaker and hobby dressman Hillinger, and announces, one year after the inauguration, the first expansion.

Hillinger Winery - a defiant castle of glass and concrete

Not all new Austrian wineries and extensions have turned out as spectacular as Hillinger's defiant concrete and glass castle. But among the dozens of projects that have been built in Lower Austria, Styria and, above all, Burgenland in the last ten years, there are many architecturally significant gems. Not necessarily the ostentatious exterior façade of the red wine project Arachon in central Burgenland. But the black box of the Fred Loimer winery in Langenlois already enjoys classic fame: an unheard-of provocation for all those who until then had only understood a wine cellar to mean a brick vault.

European money for Austria's architects

Most of the new buildings and additions, however, were made possible primarily by subsidies from the European Union. Many a winegrower would probably have built two sizes smaller and considerably less elaborate if money from Brussels had not flowed into Austria's subsidised areas. In the exhibition that has just opened at the Architekturzentrum Wien, it is mainly Austrian cellar designs that can be seen - there are no spectacular ones from Germany. And in some cases, the Austrian examples are less evidence of taste and practicality than of megalomania and practised architectural kitsch.

Exhibition at the Architekturzentrum Wien

In the most successful examples, however, wine character, winemaker personality and architect ideas are combined in a remarkable way. "Our building simply suits us," smiles Alois Kracher, a sweet wine specialist from Burgenland. With a lot of wood, air and elegance, two already existing parts of the building were connected. The result is not a cellar building, but a large tasting room on two levels - without ostentation, but with charm, personality and a feel-good factor. Like a good Burgenland Beerenauslese

The exhibition "WeinArchitektur - Vom Keller zum Kult" (Wine Architecture - From Cellar to Cult) can be visited at the Architekturzentrum Wien until 6 February 2006 (Museumsplatz 1, A-1070 Vienna, Tel. +43/1-522-311530, www.azw.at,office@azw.at). Daily from 10 am to 7 pm, Wednesdays until 9 pm. Admission costs 5 euros, reduced 3.50 euros.

Related Magazine Articles

View All
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More
More

EVENTS NEAR YOU

PREMIUM PARTNERS