The Wachau is the most famous white wine cultivation area in Austria. The scenic river landscape with the steen terrace vineyards between Melk and Krems in Lower Austria produces first-class Grüner Veltliner and Riesling , which have a great finesse and depth and are very long-lived. The Gruner Veltliner is the most important variety of the Wachau with 51% of the total vineyard area. Red wine varieties play only a subordinate role with only 5% of the cultivated area.
The members of the "Vinea Wachau" use their own predicate names. "Steinfeder" stands for very light and fresh dry wines, "Federspiel" are the medium-weight wines, "Smaragd" denotes the most powerful and long-lived top wines of the Wachau. In the meantime, however, more and more winegrowers are also establishing themselves in the top quality league, which do not use this system.
