Styria: Glasshouse and Vineyard
North of Graz, Steirereck am Pogusch has guests sleeping in a glasshouse and in tree houses. South of Graz, the Maitz family runs a winery, tavern and wine hotel on the South Styrian Wine Road.
These are two very different stays in Styria, each closely tied to what is produced on site. On the Pogusch pass in Upper Styria, a farm, gardens and glasshouses supply an inn and an open-fire kitchen. In Ratsch, near the Slovenian border, the vineyards come first, and the tavern and rooms grow out of the winery.
Pogusch: inn, farm and glasshouse
Pogusch is a pass near Turnau in Upper Styria, and Steirereck am Pogusch is an inn with its own farm. Today Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer, who also run Steirereck in Vienna, keep sheep, goats, pigs and chickens here and grow more than 500 kinds of edible plants, citrus and orchard fruit. The produce goes to the inn and to the Schankkuchl, where the cooks work over open fire and with steam in front of guests at one long table.
You can sleep in one of ten heated cabanas inside the big unheated glasshouse, among the citrus trees, sharing a washroom, sauna and fireplace room; or in tree houses, bird houses, rooms in the former stable and huts. The rebuild by PPAG architects, completed in 2022, won the Styrian State Architecture Prize in 2023. On its website the house describes itself as almost energy self-sufficient.
Plan meals around the opening days. The inn opens on Wednesday evening and from Thursday to Saturday, the Schankkuchl on Thursday to Saturday evenings. From May to October, overnight guests can book a four-course dinner from Sunday to Tuesday, according to the German website.
Maitz: winery, tavern and wine hotel
Ratsch an der Weinstraße lies on the South Styrian Wine Road, close to the Slovenian border. Josef and Maria Maitz bought a five-hectare winery here in 1957 and opened a Buschenschank; Wolfgang Maitz senior took over in 1975 and added a guest house. Today Wolfgang Maitz junior runs the estate with Carina Kaiser. Since 2013 it has belonged to the STK, the Steirische Terroir- und Klassikweingüter, and it sorts its wines by origin, from Südsteiermark DAC to the single vineyards Sulz, Krois, Schusterberg and Hochstermetzberg.
A wine hotel puts you among the vineyards and close to the cellar where the wine is made. Maitz has double rooms and suites, with a balcony or terrace depending on the room, and a breakfast buffet focused on regional produce. The tavern cooks regional dishes or food with a Mediterranean accent, served on a sun terrace above the vines in good weather. For longer stays there is the Schusterberg holiday house, a log house among the family’s vineyards.
Practical
Pogusch is about an hour by car from Graz and an hour and a half from Vienna; Ratsch lies south of Graz. You can combine the two with Graz in between or give each its own stay. September and October are harvest time on the Wine Road. The Maitz tavern is closed on Sundays and Mondays, the Pogusch inn and Schankkuchl from Sunday to Tuesday.
