Since the WienWein producers joined the Österreichische Traditionsweingüter in 2018, Ulm has carried the ÖTW Erste Lage (1ÖTW) designation, the first-growth tier for Austrian vineyards. It is one of five Erste Lage sites on the Nussberg and one of twelve across the city.
Geography and Exposure
The vineyard faces south to southeast and climbs from roughly 204 to 250 metres above sea level, with a gradient in the range of 10 to 20 degrees. Its seat directly above the Danube gives it both morning-to-midday sun on the slope and the moderating influence of the river below, conditions that suit a field blend picked together across many varieties.
Geology and Soil
The defining feature is limestone. The Nussberg is unusual within Vienna, where Flysch sandstone dominates most of the growing area. Ulm instead carries a very high limestone content, described by WienWein as a marine shoreline terrace over a Viennese sandstone subsoil, the calcareous material left behind when an ancient sea and its reef receded. Reference sources characterise the topsoil as strongly calcareous shell-limestone with a small proportion of clay. This gives the site a mineral, saline character distinct from the softer sandstone slopes elsewhere in the district.
The Field Blend
Ulm is planted to the traditional Wiener Gemischter Satz, a field blend co-planted, co-harvested and co-fermented as a single wine rather than assembled after the fact. Wieninger's Ulm draws on nine varieties grown intermingled in the vineyard, some from very old vines: Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc), Neuburger, Welschriesling, Grüner Veltliner, Silvaner, Zierfandler, Rotgipfler, Traminer and Riesling. The result is a dry, savoury white whose structure is drawn from the limestone rather than from oak.
Vinification
According to the estate's technical sheet for the site, the whole field blend is hand-picked together, given a short maceration of about four hours on the skins, and then gently pressed. Fermentation takes place in 75 percent stainless-steel tanks and 25 percent large old oak casks. The wine then rests on its fine lees for ten months before blending and bottling, a regime aimed at texture and length rather than overt richness.
Producer and Classification
Wieninger farms all of Ried Ulm as a monopole, having acquired the Hajszan Neumann vines on the site in 2014. The estate works organically and biodynamically. As the sole grower of an Erste Lage monopole planted to the historic Viennese field blend, Wieninger has made Ulm the most prominent single-vineyard expression of Gemischter Satz on the Nussberg, and a clear statement of what Vienna's limestone can do when the traditional blend is taken seriously as a terroir wine rather than a tavern staple.