Vienna's popular Schoenbrunn Palace to have its own vineyard again

Vienna's Schoenbrunn Palace, a Unesco World Heritage Site and one of the Austrian capital's most visited tourist spots, is set to have its own vineyard again, 250 years after wine was last grown there.

A group of four up-and-coming Austrian winemakers - Rainer Christ, Michael Edlmoser, Fritz Wieninger and Richard Zahel - have received authorisation to grow Gemischter Satz on a 1,000-square-metre plot in the baroque gardens of the palace.

The first 500 bottles are expected to be ready by 2011.

Gemischter Satz is a light white wine that has a long tradition in Vienna and is a blend of various different grape types - all grown in the same vineyard - harvested and vinified together. The process differs from the one used to produce a cuvee, where the different grapes are harvested and fermented separately before they are blended together and bottled.

The wine is traditionally drunk in Vienna's famous Heuriger wine taverns and was last year admitted to the Ark of Taste of the Italy-based Slow Food Foundation, which aims to protect and promote high-quality and traditionally produced foods from industrialised agriculture and big business.

For the palace operators, the decision to bring back wine-making to Schoenbrunn is seen as an additional attraction for the palace's 2.6 million visitors each year and the seven million who go to see Schoenbrunn's grounds and gardens.