Wine in Austria

<Wine in Austria>

It has been now two months since I first came to Austria. I had to adapt to a different way of living. It was not too hard getting used to gaz being cheaper compared to France. On the other hand I needed more time for others habits. I will only focus on one aspect in this article. First time I went out for a drink, I ordered a beer (of course) and my erasmus neighbours told me I had chosen right. Not just because Austria is well known for its good bier but because he told me horrified that they were mixing wine with water here. I just could not believe it at first because I had already taken a glass of wine in a restaurant with my mother when I arrived and this wine was really good and perfectly waterfree. I must say I was kind of disappointed people would mix water with wine because it felt like damaging it for me. I remember when I was about 8-years-old, my grand father would pour me some red wine in the bottom of my glass and then lots of water on top of it so that I could drink wine like grown-ups. That would be the only situation in which I would understand that someone was mixing wine with water. 

Then I realised I was being narrow-minded, the opposite of a good language learner, right ? Thus I ordered one famous "Spritzer weiß“ and then later a "Spritzer rot". Although I did not really like the one with white one, I admit the one with red one was in fact tasty. Of course I will always defend my French wine but I have faith in Austrian wine again. I even registered for a Wine Tour in the region organised by the ESN (Erasmus Student Network). I am really looking forward to this event to know more about this kind of drink.

I actually tried to find some explanation for doing so but I could not find much. I just know that Austrians sometimes find their wine too bitter and like therefore to add some water. What about the historical background of this drink ? Once more I unfortunately drew a blank. I discovered though that it was originally drunk by soldiers. It could have been maybe to save some pure wine in time of scarcity ? You can also find this aperitif in the Northeastern region of Italy that used to be part of the Autrian Empire. It is famous too in Croatia, Hungary, Roumania and even Slovenia, all of them being neighbouring countries of Austria.

I am continuing to investigate on this matter and hope I am eventually going to find out who got the idea of such a mix and why !

Thanks for reading and Happy Halloween :)
Marianne