| Location: | Das Traubenwerk - Weinviertler Heuriger Seidl in Hollabrunn |
| Website: | https://www.weinviertler-heuriger.at/ |
| Address: | Mitterweg 9/Obj. 1, 2020 Hollabrunn |
| Status: | Open (last checked on 14 February 2026) |
| Eaten: | "Waldviertler Jause," ¼ Alte Engel, 1/8 Sandfeld, 1/8 Blauburger, 1/8 Zweigelt, a small bottle of mineral water |
Austria is full of beautiful cities, charming towns and lovely villages that are a pleasure to visit and revisit. Hollabrunn is not one of them. Roughly 50 kilometers from Vienna, it feels far away and delivers nearly nothing in terms of landmarks, nature or any kind of character. It has a big central square, a church or two, several schools and exactly the same shops and you can find anywhere else. After an hour of trying to explore it, one gets bored and wants to go home. Or get drunk.
Luckily, Das Traubenwerk – Weinviertler Heuriger Seidl in Hollabrunn (amazing how such a small Heuriger can have such a long name) is a five-minute walk from the railway station, so with careful timing, one can avoid the town altogether and concentrate on wine – the production of which Hollabrunn is incidentally most famous for.
To be honest, I did not find Traubenwerk’s wine fantastic and quickly dropped my earlier plan of buying a couple of bottles for home. “Alte Engel,” which was supposed to be the oldest, strongest and most awarded Grüner Veltliner on the menu, tasted much blander than the other wines I tried from it, and the others did not impress me either. On the other hand, I was, of course, more interested in the Heuriger’s Brettljause than its wine.
At first glance, “Waldviertler Jause“ looked quite impressive. It featured Speck, Geselchtes and Schweinsbraten as many thin slices, some black pudding and headcheese, a couple of cheese slices (more for decoration, I suppose) and a hard to identify white creamy spread (it is was supposed to be Liptauer, its preparation had gone very wrong). As I started trying the ingredients one by one, I realized that none of them was special in any way. If I really had to single one out, it would be the Schweinbraten, which had a strong-ish and thus slightly off-putting flavor of the animal it had been made from. All the other cold cuts tasted predictable to the point of boredom. Day-old bread rolls did not help either.
Though there are several Heurige in the villages around Hollabrunn – some of them really good – Traubenwerk is the only one located within the town’s boundaries. Sadly, in contrast to the tavern’s pleasant interior and good service, its Brettljause is almost as dull as the town itself.