Buschenschank & Heurigen

In Austria those gastronomical enterprises are designated as “Heurigen” which have originally only sold the wine of this year´s vintage, the “heurigen” wine. The word“heuer” means “of this year” in Austria and in Southern Germany. From this derives the term : you go to the “Heurigen” and sit at table with a “Heurigen”.

Characteristics

A “Heuriger” has a few restrictions compared to a usual restaurant. Only self-grown wine may be sold. Even with the sale of food the manager is reduced to certain mainly cold dishes. As a rule only the wine is served, the dishes are mostly fetched from a buffet and also paid there.

A Heuriger has “aus´gsteckt” only for a certain period of time every year, which means “opened” in colloquial language. To be seen easily this is marked by a pine tree bough hanging above the entrance , usually right above the heads. At a locality of wine-growers there usually is an agreement about which of them will have “aus´gsteckt” at what time. Like this it is ensured that there will always be one or more “Heurigen” open. You will even find special boards at these localities on which every wine-grower shows exactly at what time his place is open (the so-called “Rauschbaum” – intoxication tree). These boards are often elaborately forged and the particular “Heurige” can put its little board into a frame for the time being open.

As on one hand the gastronomical expectations of a Heurigen place have grown, but on the other hand these are not easy to finance in the traditional way , many “Heurige” nowadays have an additional licence for restaurants so that they may also serve warm dishes.

At the beginning of century 20 th  it was a custom to bring along your own food to the Heurigen. Even your own drinks could be consumed against payment of a so-called “Stoppelgeld” (Korkengeld – cork fee).

To improve the profitability of a locality it was usual in many places to let this locality be managed by a co-operative society and the respective wine-growers rented this locality for several weeks pro annum in each case. This type of place was usually called “Winzerstube”.

Heurigen Calendar 2009