A Grinzing Erste Lage on Viennese Sandstone

Schenkenberg

Ried Schenkenberg sits in Grinzing, the Döbling district that gives Vienna its most famous Heuriger addresses, and it belongs to the small group of city vineyards that Austria's classification now ranks as first-growth ground. The name is old. Records place it in 1329 as "in dem Schenckenperge," and the Klosterneuburg monastery tithe rolls list it again in 1355, so this slope has been worked as vineyard for close to seven centuries.

Classification

Schenkenberg is a classified Erste Lage (1ÖTW) within the register maintained by the Österreichische Traditionsweingüter, the ranking that the WienWein growers formally joined in 2018 to bring the capital's best parcels into a national system. Vienna currently holds twelve ÖTW Erste Lage sites, and three of them lie in Grinzing: Schenkenberg alongside Steinberg and Seidenhaus. Admission rests on documented criteria, among them hillside position, geologically distinctive soil, and a sustained record of quality and market standing across at least five years.

The Site

The vineyard covers 5.17 hectares on a south to southwest slope. The gradient is moderate by the standards of steep-river viticulture. WienWein records the pitch at roughly 5 degrees, while wein.plus describes an incline running from 2 to 17 degrees across the parcel. Elevation figures differ slightly by source: WienWein gives 268 to 298 meters, and wein.plus gives 262 to 300 meters. Either way this is mid-slope Grinzing, sitting below the higher Nussberg and Steinberg ground.

The geology is Viennese sandstone, the Flysch that underlies much of the city's northwestern hills, here carrying calcareous quartz sandstone and a modest degree of marine deposits. WienWein notes that Schenkenberg's soils are considerably more alkaline than those at the higher elevations nearby, a lime-influenced base that sets its character apart from the leaner sandstone further up the hill.

The Wines

Schenkenberg is planted to the varieties that define serious white Vienna: Weißburgunder, Chardonnay, Grüner Veltliner, Muskateller and Rotgipfler, together with the field blend Gemischter Satz that remains the city's signature. Two estates hold parcels here and bottle the site by name.

Weingut Mayer am Pfarrplatz, based at Pfarrplatz 2 in Heiligenstadt (1190 Wien) and working Viennese vineyards since 1683, produces a Ried Schenkenberg-Grinzing Grüner Veltliner under the 1ÖTW Erste Lage designation. Weingut Fuhrgassl-Huber bottles a Ried Schenkenberg Erste Lage ÖTW Weißburgunder. In both cases the growers carry the vineyard as a single-site statement, the clearest signal that they regard this alkaline sandstone slope as worth naming on the label rather than folding into a broader Grinzing or Wien bottling.

This comprehensive guide is part of the WineSaint Wine Region Guide collection. Last updated: September 2026.