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Some places are best explored through their local food. – Austria one of them. Here is a guide to the country’s best food experiences and delicious inspiration for more or less serious foodies.

Wine Hiking in Vienna’s vineyards, Vienna

Vienna and wine are inseparable. Vienna is the only world capital to produce significant quantities of wine within the city limits. 700 hectares of vineyards and 190 vintners leave their mark on the cityscape and its culture of pleasure. White wines are grown in around 80 percent of the vineyards. A specialty among Viennese wines is the so-called “Field Blend” (“Wiener Gemischter Satz”). In a worldwide first, a new law enacted at the start of 2015 stipulated that the capital’s vineyards had to be used for winegrowing to prevent valuable growing regions from falling prey to real estate developers – effective heritage listing the city’s vineyards. The city’s unique vineyards can be explored every year in autumn on the wine hiking day – with lots of opportunities to sample good wines and enjoy the view of the city. The wine landscape can be hiked through on three routes with a total length of 25 kilometres.

More information about the Vienna Wine Hiking Days:

www.wien.info/en/shopping-wining-dining/wine/wine-trail

The 9 pathways of the Via Culinaria, SalzburgerLand

The province of Salzburg has the highest concentration of award-winning gourmet restaurants in Austria. This is no coincidence: Salzburg’s stock of fresh-water fish and quality meats provides the best ingredients for culinary adventures. To make life easier for curious explorers, the region connects its best restaurants with culinary pathways dubbed the “Via Culinaria.” Nine themed trails are geared towards “Fish Fans, Gourmets, Cheese Lovers, Meat Eaters, and Schnaps Aficionados.” Whether they are sampled at the producer or the farmer, enjoyed at a rustic host as traditional specialties or served at the highest level of gourmet art at the critically acclaimed restaurant – the key ingredients for Via Culinaria are regionality, originality, quality and authenticity.

More information about the Via Culinaria:

www.salzburgerland.com/en/via-culinaria

Long Table of Graz, Styria

As a foodie, you’ll feel right at home in Graz: You’ll find local cuisine using regional and seasonal products at every corner. Events like the week-long Graz Food Festival in August and regular farmers’ markets are integral parts of the city, as are exciting restaurants serving up ever new scrumptious creations. One of the highlights is the Long Table of Graz. Every year in August the historic centre of Graz will turn into a giant open-air restaurant with a stunningly laid table and culinary delights. The city’s top chefs plan a five-course dinner accompanied by a tasting of regional beers and wines.

More information about the Long Table:

https://www.graztourismus.at/en/eat-and-drink/events/long-table

Exquisite cuisine in the middle of the Alps at “ice Q” in Sölden, Tirol

Enthroned on the summit of the Gaislachkogl is the spectacular “ice Q” gourmet restaurant where parts of the recent James Bond film Spectre were filmed. A glassy gourmet temple surrounded by over 250 superb three-thousand metre mountains. Head chef Klaus Holzer and his team seduce with locally sourced ingredients and artistically arranged haute cuisine paired with the most exceptional wine – the Pino 3000, a melange of the choicest Pinot Noir from one Austrian, one Italian and one German winemaker. The Pino 3000 ripens for three years in barrique caskets in the Ice Q’s special wine cellar. The cellar’s altitude – higher than 3,000m – gives the wine a particularly fresh and fruity aroma.

More information about the IceQ:

www.iceq.at/en

On the Cheese Road’s Delicious Trail in Bregenzerwald, Vorarlberg

Locals say the Käse Strasse (Cheese Road) in the gently undulating Bregenzerwald is the perfect combination of natural beauty and unparalleled taste. But it is not a road in the conventional sense – it is a collaborative initiative of cheese experts: 17 valley dairies and 90 alpine farmsteads who let you experience their delicious work in all stages. From sampling up to 60 different hard, soft, sliced and cream cheeses at the Käsehaus in Andelsbuch to trying your own hand at cheese making at dairying school Metzler in Egg and indulging in a hearty cheese platter amidst fragrant herbs and grass at one of the alpine dairy farms.

More information about the Cheese Road: www.bregenzerwald.at/en/thema/culinary/kaesestrasse

Barge breakfast on lake Altaussee, Salzkammergut Lake Region

Barges are traditional wooden boats used on the lakes of the Ausseerland in the Salkammergut, one of the most picturesque regions in Austria. Made of larch or spruce tree without a keel, many things have been transported on the characteristic boats: People, produce and salt mined in the surrounding salt mines. Indulge in a hearty breakfast while enjoying the breathtaking views from your private barge and watch the special rowing technique of the rowers to stop the boat from going in circles.