Burgenland’s Esterhàzy Palace
By Teresa Faudon
Austrian Tourist Office
This sun-drenched region’s graceful vineyards produce dry reds, dry whites, and luscious sweet wines. Let the storied wine cellars at Esterhàzy Palace get you better acquainted.
For more than 300 years, the Esterhàzy dynasty of philanthropists and art collectors were also passionate wine enthusiasts. Their fruit-driven wines impressed the likes of Empress Maria Theresia, composer Josef Haydn, and even the spoiled privy councilor von Goethe.
Today, Esterhàzy Palace is still attracting oenophiles with its state-of-the-art winery, wine museum, and regional wine bar. In the palace cellars, the Burgenland Wine Museum houses more than 700 objects related to the art of winemaking, including the region’s largest carved wine cask and the oldest wooden lever wine press.
Stop in at the Esterhàzy Vinothek and Wine Bar to taste exquisite wines by the glass or by the flight, and pair with a selection of small gourmet dishes. To bring a taste of Burgenland home with you, select from hundreds of wines by the region’s top producers.
You’ll want to spend at least a few days exploring the rest of Burgenland’s bounty. Whether you stay in a traditional farmhouse or an upscale hotel, a vineyard cottage, country estate or renovated castle, you’ll find modern comforts and natural beauty.
Via “Panonnian Living” you’ll find a wide variety of options: A rural “Streckhof” (traditional farmhouse) brings the outdoors in with finely crafted wooden staircases and casts simple elegance with the courtyard’s whitewashed stonework. At luxurious Castle Hotel Halbturn, the former hunting lodge of Empress Maria Theresia, stately grandeur blends with modern upgrades. No matter where you stay in Burgenland, your gracious hosts will make you feel right at home.
(Photo courtesy of Austrian Tourist Office)
