Burgenland runs along the Hungarian border in the east of Austria, flat, warm and dominated by the Neusiedlersee, a shallow steppe lake barely two metres deep that acts as a giant radiator. It holds heat into the autumn, raises humidity over the vineyards on its shores and makes the eastern side of the lake, around Rust and Illmitz, one of the most reliable places in Europe for noble rot.

That is why Burgenland is Austria's sweet wine country. Ruster Ausbruch, made at Rust since the seventeenth century, is the historic style, and the Seewinkel on the far shore produces botrytised wine almost every year. The region is equally serious about red. Blaufränkisch is the grape that matters, grown on the slate and limestone slopes of Mittelburgenland and the Leithaberg, giving firm, peppery wines with real acidity, and Zweigelt and Sankt Laurent fill out the plantings.