While incarcerated under quarantine, I’ve been participating in a series of wine seminars put on by Skurnik Wines & Spirits of New York City. They’re a well-known importer and distributor of wines in the US, and one of my favorite local wine shops has been featuring their weekly Zoom seminars. Each Saturday afternoon features a winemaker and one of their signature wines. The first week, I sipped a delicious single-estate Riesling made by a delightful older German fellow; the second week a Champagne made by a delicious-looking young French guy; and this Saturday, two Grüner Veltiners – one from Austria and one from California. The Austrian was Leo Alzinger Jr from Weingut Alzinger in the Wachau, and the Calfornian Graham Tatomer from Tatomer Wines in Santa Barbara. I had no idea Santa Barbara produced cool-weather wines such as riesling and Grüner, but so they do! Apparently the area immediately along the coast is cool enough to suit those varietals, while inland is better suited to the chardonnay and pinot noir California is known for.

Grüner Veltliner, a light-bodied white wine best suited to cooler climes, is not all that well-known; I first tried it on a trip to Vienna the summer of 2005 with my ex. This was one of several stops across Northeastern Europe, as we made our way towards Russia and the Trans-Siberian Railway. In Vienna, I convinced my husband we needed to visit the heuriger on the outskirts of the city. To reach them, one just takes the tram to the very end of the line, and then wanders around the Austrian countryside in search of wine.

Heuriger are wine taverns that serve only locally produced wines, and often ones grown on site. They are very casual; you’ll find picnic tables scattered outside under the trees, and you typically order wine by the viertel, or quarter liter, and there’s usually meats, cheese, veggies, and other light snacks served buffet style to accompany your wine. And, the wine is usually Grüner Veltliner. Eminently quaffable, especially when chilled, it’s the perfect antidote on a hot summer’s day.

My husband and I had a delightful time wandering from heurige to heurige that day 15 years ago, meandering down dusty paths in the Viennese countryside, becoming more inebriated as we went. As we were blissfully traipsing back to the tram station, we spotted a horse standing under a tree behind a wooden fence. There was a hand-written sign on the fence, telling passersby to please not futtern the horse. I could decipher everything but the verb. This being pre-smartphone, and lacking a German-English dictionary, we couldn’t just look it up. We pet the horse, who seemed very friendly, then realized maybe we were disobeying the sign, and made our way onwards. Later I learned that the author of the sign wanted us not to feed the horse, which is good, because we didn’t.

Anyway, I highly recommend spending a sunny afternoon drinking wine at a heurige, and I also recommend Grüner Veltliner. It’s often overlooked, as I mentioned, because it’s so light-bodied, and lacks the heft of a chardonnay or the layers of fruit in a riesling. But they’re delicate and sometimes minerally; one of the ones I tasted yesterday had a distinct yeastiness to it, like fresh-baked bread.