Styria
Wine hills in the south, alpine pastures and greenhouses in the north.
Styria has two faces, and both have to do with food.
In the south, on the border with Slovenia, the wine road: steep hills, vines to the horizon, wine taverns serving cold platters and Sauvignon Blanc that ranks among the best in the world without the world saying so very loudly. The landscape is often called Tuscany; it is greener, cooler and more honest.
In the north, in Upper Styria, the mountains: Hochschwab, alpine pastures, inns where game and pumpkin-seed oil come to the table. Up here, on the Pogusch, the Reitbauer family has turned an inn into a place chefs from half the world come to visit.
Styria is the province where Austria eats best — and boasts about it least.
If you want both, it's a two-hour drive: vineyards in the morning, alpine pastures in the evening. We wouldn't recommend both in one weekend. Choose. For the south: Weingut Maitz in Ratsch, inn and wine hotel in one, looking out over the vines. For the north: Steirereck am Pogusch, where you sleep in treehouses and breakfast in the greenhouse among lemon trees. Come in September, for the harvest in the south and the first frost in the north.
