Cycling & Wine Tasting in Kremstal: Our Guide to Austria’s Wine Region
After plenty of trips to Austria - and naturally sampling our fair share of Austrian wine along the way - we started to notice the same names appearing again and again on the labels of some of our favourite bottles. Wachau, Kremstal and Kamptal had slowly become familiar names, and eventually, our curiosity got the better of us. Where exactly were these wines coming from, and could we go straight to the source?
A little research later, we discovered that all three wine regions sit relatively close together in Lower Austria and, even better, could easily be reached from Salzburg. That was enough to get us planning.
The original idea was to spend a few days cycling and wine tasting through the Wachau Valley, but with neighbouring Kremstal and Kamptal practically on its doorstep, it seemed a shame not to squeeze those in too.
And so, bikes in tow and with plenty of room in our backpacks for a bottle or two, we set off to explore Austria’s wine country on two wheels - starting with Kremstal.
Our 1-Day Itinerary for Kremstal
We tailored our one-day Kremstal itinerary around the wineries we most wanted to visit, linking them together into a route we could tackle by bike. One day certainly isn’t enough to experience everything Kremstal has to offer, but it gave us a brilliant introduction to the region - and plenty of reasons to come back.
Weinhof Fink
Weingut Müller
Josef Dockner - The Start of Our Kremstal Wine Tour
Location: Winzerhof Familie Dockner, Ortsstraße 30, 3508 Höbenbach
We had absolutely no idea what to expect from wine tasting in Austria. Despite drinking plenty of Austrian wine over the years, this was our first time actually visiting one of the country’s wineries.
We’d done our research before the trip, picking out the wineries we most wanted to visit, but quickly discovered that finding information online wasn’t always easy. Details about opening hours, wine tastings, tasting menus and prices could be surprisingly limited, so there was still a bit of mystery around how the whole experience would work once we arrived.
And with that, Josef Dockner had the honour of becoming our very first Austrian wine tasting - and our introduction to what wine tasting in Kremstal was really like.
We chose Josef Dockner as our first stop because it was already a familiar name to us. Their wines are some of the more common Kremstal wines we’d spotted in Austrian supermarkets, so we were curious to visit the winery behind the bottles we’d seen - and already enjoyed plenty of times before.
Our first impressions of the tasting centre were a little mixed. Rather than the cosy cellar or intimate tasting room we’d perhaps imagined, the space felt more like a combination of a shop and office. The tasting also took place standing at the counter, which initially felt a little awkward compared with sitting around a table and leisurely working your way through a flight of wines.
What the setting lacked in atmosphere, however, our host more than made up for. He was incredibly friendly and knowledgeable, talking us through the history of Josef Dockner, the family behind the winery and the wines being produced today.
There wasn’t a rigid tasting flight to follow either. Instead, we were given a wine menu and could choose a selection of bottles that interested us, including the opportunity to sample some of their reserve wines. For a first introduction to wine tasting in Kremstal, being able to explore the range and simply ask to try the wines that caught our attention worked really well.
Then came one of the biggest surprises of our visit: the tasting was completely free. After working our way through a generous selection of wines, we fully expected a tasting fee, so discovering there was no charge certainly wasn't a bad way to begin our Kremstal wine tour.
Before leaving, it’s also worth having a look around the shop. Alongside plenty of bottles to take home, Josef Dockner sells a selection of marmalades, chutneys and other products, with some bottles and items available at reduced prices.
It might not have been the cosy Austrian wine-cellar experience we’d pictured before arriving, but between the warm welcome, relaxed approach to choosing our wines and free tasting, Josef Dockner gave us a great first taste of Kremstal.
