The official wine growing areas of northern Burgenland in Austria are Neusiedlersee-Hugelland and Neusiedlersee on the west and east side of Lake Neusiedl respectively. Those names don’t really roll gracefully off the non-German speaking tongue and they are actually not really as descriptive as they could be to German speakers either. The Leitha mountain chain on the west side of the lake stretches from Grosshöflein to Jois and has a strong climatic and geological influence on the wines there. A “Leithaberg” appelation would be more logical. On the east side there is a bend in the huge 320 km² shallow Lake Neusiedl and in the bend there are many small salty lakes and ponds which also strongly influence the wines there. “Seewinkel” would also be a more fitting appellation name.
Comments (2)
Why not Eastside and Westside – easy to understand for most US wine-afficionados, especially NYC
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Seewinkel doesn’t match the best Gols’ Reds from Altenberg, Leithaberg is wrong for the famous Mörbisch / Rust region.
“Seewinkel doesn’t match the best Gols’ Reds from Altenberg, Leithaberg is wrong for the famous Mörbisch / Rust region.”
This is true. A suggestion for the Gols area is “Golser Wagram” and for Mörbisch/Rust “Hügelland”. Together with “Leithaberg” and “Seewinkel”, we’d have appellations that have geological/topographical meaning and although not as easy for we English-speakers as “Eastside” “Westside” at least not as long as Neusiedlersee-Hügelland!