Domäne Wachau

This is not a family estate but a co-operative, and a large one. It was founded in 1938 in Dürnstein as the Winzergenossenschaft Wachau, buying the former vineyard of the Starhemberg family. It changed name twice: Freie Weingärtner Wachau in 1990 and Domäne Wachau since 2008. It is run by Roman Horvath, Master of Wine, with Heinz Frischengruber heading the winemaking.

The Wachau covers some fourteen hundred hectares shared among around six hundred and fifty growers, on some of Austria's steepest terraces. No machine fits there: picking is by hand and the dry-stone walls have to be maintained by hand, one by one.

The region grades its dry whites in three tiers —Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd— and the highest takes its name from an animal: the emerald-green lizards that bask in the sun on those same stone terraces. Smaragd means emerald.