Natural/Orange Wine Fair Karakterre

"KarakTerre" Trade Show in Eisenstadt on May 13 and 14, 2026

In 2023, I had guests from France at my Waterfront cabin. I was delighted, though surprised, that someone would fly all the way from Paris to Vienna, rent a car, and come visit me. Although, on the other hand, it really is beautiful here at Lake Neusiedl. 🙂

As it turned out, however, the French weren’t there for me, but mainly for the KarrakTerre wine fair. This is one of the world’s best tastings for orange wines, held regularly in New York and Eisenstadt. People who drink so unconventionally also like to live unconventionally—for example, in my stilt houses.

Although I’ve been very interested in wine for many, many years and have for years preferred mainly natural wines, orange wines, or simply wines that have character and substance—rather than just industrially produced primary fruit flavors—I hadn’t heard of the KarakTerre fair until then.

This year, it will take place on May 13 and 14 in Eisenstadt. And this year, there will be 3 huts instead of 4 on those dates, because one is reserved for me—I’m definitely going to the fair.

About 200 winemakers, many of them from Austria, are exhibiting. List here:

https://karakterre.com/winegrowers-austria

What is orange wine?

Orange wine, or natural wine, is a white wine produced in the same way as red wine. After all, what many people don’t know is that the juice from red and white grapes has the same color immediately after pressing. Red wine only turns red because the juice is left in contact with the grape skins during fermentation—the wine is fermented “on the skins.” If you do this with white wine (which was also common centuries ago), the white wine takes on a cloudier, sometimes almost orange color. Since winemakers who produce wine this way usually grow their grapes organically, don’t filter the wine, don’t add sulfur, and generally avoid other additives, terms like “orange,” “natural,” “organic,” “Demeter,” and so on are often used interchangeably—even though they’re not always synonymous.

Depending on the mash hold time (the time spent on the mash), the results (the wines) can vary greatly in appearance, aroma, taste, color, and cloudiness. “Takes some getting used to” is sometimes a helpful way to describe it. Many people feel that the line between success and failure is very fine. I like to compare it to standard Milka milk chocolate versus dark chocolate. Many people always stick with Milka, while many have outgrown milk chocolate and never want to go back. Some like both, depending on the situation (myself, for example).

Many of the wines often described as “classic” are the opposite of classic. From a historical perspective, orange wine would be considered classic. If you travel to Slovenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, or Armenia, you’ll notice that.
To me, our “classic” wines are sometimes too (primarily) fruity, so they don’t really work as food pairings for me (I don’t drink lemonade with schnitzel either), but as stand-alone wines, they’re too weak, too thin, and lack body (I’m generalizing to highlight the difference).

Orange wines, on the other hand, have a long-lasting, intense flavor. This brings me back to dark chocolate, of which I usually eat only a piece the size of a fingernail (or less). For exactly that reason, I also drink much less orange wine. Which isn’t a downside, since orange wine is in the higher price range—most bottles cost between 20 and 35 EUR. Links to (online) shops are provided below.

Orange Wine from Burgenland

And now back to our roots, namely Rust: the winemakers in Rust are mostly very traditional in their approach, though I want to emphasize that “orange vs. traditional” is NOT a question of quality; there are very, very good traditional white wines, and the majority of wine drinkers believe anyway that orange wine is flawed and that only a controlled (i.e., traditional) production process guarantees quality—which, with the emphasis on “guarantees,” is actually true. Without having done much research, Michael Wenzel seems to have been one of the pioneering figures (please let me know if I’m wrong here) and was already serving orange wine at the Orangerie in Eisenstadt in 2017 at a precursor event to Karakterre; more details here: https://trinkprotokoll.at/orange-wein-aus-der-orangerie-und-was-uns-sonst-noch-schmeckte/

Peter Schandl has also been part of the event for years, offering, for example, a fantastic Traminer and a very good Pinot Gris: https://www.schandlwein.com

One of the very earliest pioneers in the field of natural wines is certainly Gut Oggau, located in Oggau, just 3 km from Rust https://www.gutoggau.com. Hardly anyone has been as consistent as Stephanie and Edi, and they’ve been at it since at least 2007. The wine tavern is truly special and well worth a visit, and despite its close family ties to the Taubenkobel, prices start at a reasonable level (I have to speak up here, because I sense a certain hesitation among some people regarding this). The labels certainly tell you more than the wine inside (Source: Gut Oggau website). According to Falstaff, the best orange wines can be found here: https://www.falstaff.com/at/rf/pw/csk0/oesterreich/burgenland/orange-wine

According to Falstaff, the best orange wines from Burgenland can be found here (incomplete list): https://www.falstaff.com/at/rf/pw/csk0/oesterreich/burgenland/orange-wine

Additional winemakers are listed on the Karakterre website.

https://karakterre.com/winegrowers-austria

But now I'd like to quickly recommend: Buy tickets for the Karakterre

https://tickets.karakterre.com

Book your accommodations for this date right here: stilt house.stilt houses

Aside from buying directly from the winemaker—which is always the best option—a very good place to shop, not just for orange wines, for example, is...

Wine Scandal in Vienna: https://weinskandal.at/collections/orange-wein-aus-osterreich

as well as Pub Klemo: https://shop.pubklemo.at

(both online and offline)

Disclaimer 😉: I know I'm only scratching the surface here—sorry about that—but stilt house isn't a wine portal, after all; it's just a place to stay thatoffers a few event recommendations.