Austria Drinks

Wines are very carefully policed since the revelation of diethyleneglycol found in some pressings. Most bottlers have always maintained ethical standards. Prices average from $9 to $23 per bottle and from $2 to $3.50 for a fourth of a liter.

While Klosterneuburger is perhaps the best white wine, if you stick to Gumpoldskirchner (available in most places), you'll probably be pleased. Other dependable and sound labels are Kremser, Duernsteiner, Hohenwarther, Nussberger and Wachauer (Danube). An excellent red is Voslauer; the red from Baden also most often superb.

Of the beers, Gosser Brau is an rich brew made in Styria. It's full bodied and fine; you will have a choice of light or dark. Schwechater in tops in Vienna. Price: about $2 per glass.

Imported potables are relatively expensive. Strictly for nickel-plated gullets, there's a local rum that puts life in the afternoon tea, a "club whisky" that will lift the hat right off your head and a schnapps that you'll find still delicately flaked with enamel from the bathtub. (In fairness, most of the latter are fine in quality, but pack the wallop of a Titan missile). If you have about $6 to spend and take it like W. C. Fields, there is also the local plum brandy or slivovitz. Enzian is another brandy, distilled from the roots of the tall yellow (not blue) gentian. Bowle is a refreshing summer punch made of white wine, champagne or curacao, and fresh fruits; served from a bowl it costs about $2.50 per glass.

I you order a dry martini, be sure always to specify Beefeater (cheaper) or Gordon's as it's best applied to arrest baldness.

Soft drinks, such as Coca-Cola, at perhaps $1.45 per glass, are expensive. Lemonade and other locally bottle citrus beverages are priced at the same level.