Schlumberger Kellerwelten

From Heiligenstadter Straße you do not know what is hidden behind the walls. Around 300 years ago, winemakers dug passages into the hillside here to store their wine coolly. Robert Schlumberger, who had studied in a champagne winery in Reims, founded the first sparkling wine production in Austria in 1842. Later, the individual cellars in Heiligenstadt were connected to form a continuous labyrinth, which today is about two and a half kilometers long.

During a guided tour, it goes down into the cool vault. You learn how sparkling wine is produced after traditional bottle fermentation, and you are allowed to put your hand on the shaking desk, just like the cellar workers used to. Part of the plant, the so-called cathedral cellar, is said to have been planned by Carl von Ghega, the builder of the Semmeringbahn. Finally, of course, there is a glass of sparkling wine. Packing a jacket is not a bad idea, because it stays fresh down here in the summer.