Weinviertel Wine Cellar Lanes

Our carefully curated travel tips

1 | Discover the wine cellar lanes

In the past, wine cellar lanes served as production and storage facilities for wine, dug into the loess, often on the outskirts of villages, close to the vineyards. With the modernisation of viticulture, they lost their original function, but not their unique charm. Of the approximately 1,300 wine cellar lanes in Lower Austria, most are located in the Weinviertel region. 

The diversity of these "villages without chimneys" can be experienced today in places such as the listed Zipf wine cellar lane in Mailberg, the Maulavern wine cellar lane in Zellerndorf with its cellar museum, the restored Hühnerkoppel wine cellar lane with its sand cellar labyrinth, and the Hadreser Kellertrift, the longest structurally enclosed wine cellar lane in Europe.

Culinary events and cellar lane festivals

Even today, locals and visitors still gather in the wine cellar lanes. For example, at "Tafeln im Weinviertel" (Dining in the Weinviertel), where people sit together at long white-covered tables under the open sky, glasses are filled with Weinviertel DAC wine, and the kitchen serves the best the region has to offer.

Or at the Weinviertel Cellar Lane Culinary Festival, where each course is served in a different wine press house, accompanied by matching wines from the winemakers. 

Wine cellar lane festivals take place from spring to autumn. But because cosy get-togethers with wine and good food are always in season, the Advent markets move into the wine cellar lanes in winter. 

3 | The most beautiful cycle tours to wine cellar lanes

A perfect day of cycling in Retz begins at the historic main square, perhaps with a quick stop at Sgrafit Bike, where you can get tour tips and bikes. And then you're ready to go! Past the Retz windmill, over rolling hills, through vineyards and history. There are many different routes around Retz. The Weinviertel DAC wine cycle route runs for 56 km through the heart of the northern Weinviertel region: from Retz via Pulkau and Roseldorf to the impressive Maulaverner wine cellar lane in Zellerndorf, before returning via the Öhlbergkellergasse in Pillersdorf. 

Attractive alternatives or motivating add-ons are cycle routes starting from Mailberg or Laa an der Thaya.
 

4 | Cellar lane tours

If you want to understand the soul of the Weinviertel region, you have to descend into the cellar tunnels. A guided tour of the cellar lanes tells the story of wine, craftsmanship and community: how entire villages were built from clay, lime and loam, where wine was once produced and stored and is still celebrated today.

A tip: the Long Night of the wine cellar lanes. On the Friday after Ascension Day, torches and lanterns light the way through the night-time cellar vaults. With mysterious stories, wine tastings and hearty snacks – atmospheric, mystical and typically Weinviertel.
 

Spend the night in the wine cellar lane

Living among the vines: unusual accommodation