What sets Austria apart is that it has made its name from one indigenous grape variety -Grüner Veltliner,Austria’s national grape varietal. It is not a piece of news to wine insiders. They both have a similarweightiness and with age, Grüner Veltliner turns round and powerful with a texture that could be similarto Chardonnay.Austria is made up of nine federal states and viticulture is concentrated in four of them: Lower Austria(Niederösterreich), Vienna, Burgenland, and Styria. Niederosterreich, located northeast of Austria, is thecountry's largest wine region. It is also the largest quality wine-growing area with eight of the 16 officialwine regions (also half of the total production). Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are by far the two maingrape varieties.The soils here are very diverse. One finds Mica-schist in the Bohemian massif in the Kamptal region, butalso bedrock weathered soils, covered with a thin coating of humus. The heart of Heiligenstein, an almostideal partner for top-class Rieslings is a weathered desert sandstone from the Permian. Grüner Veltlinerthrives on the gravel soils of Manhartsberg or the partly massive loess deposits that characterize thesouthern borders of this wine region.