XVI

A Square with a Smile: Wine, Wit and Sixteen at Wolff

Review of the 16th ABS “Heurigen” Evening on Friday, 3 July 2026, at Buschenschank Wolff
(Fotos: © Wolfgang Geissler)
By Wolfgang Geissler

The ABS Heurigen Tradition

On 14 July 2011, the first Heurigen Evening of the Austro-British Society took place. It began at Zeiler am Hauerweg and soon found its regular home at Buschenschank Wolff in Neustift am Walde.

Originally, the evening was a joint gathering of the ABS and the Austro-British Chamber of Commerce. The Chamber has since faded from the scene; since 2020, the Heurigen has been a purely ABS affair.

Its formula is simple enough. There is no speech, no programme, no free buffet, and no great ceremony. Members and friends come, sit down, order what they want, pay for what they consume, talk, laugh, praise the wine, complain about the weather if required, and return the following year.

Perhaps that is why it works. Nothing is overburdened. The evening is allowed to happen.

Previously on the 15th ABS Heurigen…

Last year we contemplated the number 15, a number with youthful confidence and just enough maturity not to embarrass itself completely.

Fifteen gave us mathematical charm, phosphorus, rugby teams, numerology, and Andy Warhol’s famous 15 minutes of fame. It suited the occasion rather well: sociable, slightly odd, and unexpectedly balanced.

The evening itself provided a few familiar ingredients. Vienna had been sweltering, with temperatures nudging 34 degrees, before Neustift am Walde received a thorough rinsing. My wife and I arrived by 35A bus at Rathstraße and then walked, umbrellas in hand, through what had briefly become a small river.

At Buschenschank Wolff the mood recovered quickly. Our President, Prof. Dr. Kurt Tiroch, received us with Prosecco and the useful information that the first rows of tables were protected by large umbrellas. There was also a brief Viennese financial drama when “Bares ist Wahres” threatened those of us equipped with cards rather than cash. It was solved with good humour.

The 15th ABS Heurigen therefore showed, once again, that perfect weather is not essential. A little heat, a little rain, some improvisation and good company will do.

And Now… the 16th ABS Heurigen

A Number with Corners

Sixteen looks orderly. No superstition like 13. No adolescent swagger quite like 15. No grand roundness like 20. It stands there calmly, almost too neatly.

It is 4 × 4, a perfect square: four rows, four columns, order without fuss. It is also 2 × 2 × 2 × 2, or 2⁴. A number for mathematicians, computer people, engineers, chess players, and others who prefer their universe orderly.

At a Heurigen, of course, order has its limits. Four people become eight, eight become sixteen, and before long somebody has to find another bench.

Sixteen Turns Ten

In ordinary life we count in tens, mostly because we have ten fingers. Computers are less sentimental. They like powers of two. In hexadecimal, the counting system based on 16, the number sixteen is written as 10.

By that measure, the 16th ABS Heurigen has just turned ten. A comforting thought for an event determined not to grow old.

Chess and Table Tactics

Each chess player begins with sixteen pieces: pawns, rooks, knights, bishops, queen and king. Each has a role. Some advance slowly, some move diagonally, some jump over obstacles, and one or two pieces attract rather more attention than they perhaps deserve.

The comparison with a Heurigen evening is tempting. There are those who open the conversation, those who defend tradition, those who move from table to table with diplomatic skill, those who remember every detail of previous years, and those who appear exactly when another glass is being ordered.

The difference is that nobody at Wolff is trying to checkmate anybody. At least not officially.

Sweet Sixteen

“Sweet sixteen” suggests youth, charm, promise, and a little overconfidence. For the ABS Heurigen, sixteen means something slightly different. It is old enough to know what it is, but still young enough not to become pompous.

That is a useful stage. Successful traditions can become heavy. This one has avoided it. Nobody has to rise. Nobody has to endure a speech before supper. Nobody has to pretend that a relaxed evening among friends is a state occasion.

A Little Sulphur

Element 16 in the periodic table is sulphur. After last year’s phosphorus, with its sparks and matches, sulphur is earthier: minerals, hot springs, old laboratories, volcanoes, ancient medicine, and a smell one does not easily forget.

None of this should be applied too literally to our evening.

Still, sulphur is essential to life. It is not decorative, but necessary. Durable traditions are similar. They need less sparkle than substance: roots, repetition, and a character robust enough to survive weather, logistics, and the occasional payment problem.

By its sixteenth appearance, the ABS Heurigen has that character. It is no longer simply an annual summer outing. It has become one of those modest rituals people would miss if it disappeared.

Same place. Same tables, more or less. Same impression that nothing much is being organised, and yet everything works.

A magic square of sorts.

The 16th ABS Heurigen in Practice

We took two lessons home from this year’s Heurigen.

The first: never assume.

There is an old English warning about the word “assume”: it can make an ass out of you and me. Crude perhaps, but not entirely wrong.

When I climbed the steep steps up to the upper terrace at Buschenschank Wolff, where we had gathered in recent years, I was followed by our President, Prof. Dr. Kurt Tiroch. The tables were beautifully set, the view was familiar, and for a brief moment all seemed well.

Only briefly.

A member of staff soon informed us that we were in the wrong place. Our tables had been reserved on the platform above the entrance, on the opposite side.

So down the stairs we went, across the courtyard, and up another set of stairs. There we found that we were not even the first to arrive. Three ABS members had already settled themselves comfortably at one of the tables.

Our President, visibly surprised, asked how they had known where to go.

“We asked,” came the simple reply.

The second lesson: never trust the weather forecast.

For the last four years or so, rain had played its traditional part in the ABS Heurigen. This year, we had every reason to expect a repeat performance. But no. The weather behaved itself.

After a week in which Vienna had endured temperatures of up to 40 degrees, the evening was not hot, but pleasantly warm. A rare distinction, and a welcome one.

Surprise, surprise.

Buschenschank Wolff then added its own generous touch. We were not only offered a complimentary glass of Prosecco — or, in some cases, two — but soon found a basket of fresh rolls on the table, followed by the familiar Aufstriche: Liptauer, Verhackertes and Topfen.

And this time the supplies did not vanish after a token appearance. They kept coming, courtesy of Buschenschank Wolff, until even the hungriest mouths had been satisfied.

A promising beginning, then: the wrong terrace, the right company, no rain, and a generous spread of rolls and Aufstrich to set the evening in motion.

Looking Ahead: Seventeen

And next year? Seventeen.

After the neat square of sixteen, seventeen arrives with a sharper profile. It is a prime number, which means it does not divide politely. It stands on its own: elegant, awkward, independent, and slightly suspicious.

Culturally, seventeen is the age of almost-there. No longer childish, not yet fully adult. Full of opinions, energy, impatience, and the vague feeling that life is about to begin properly at any moment.

A good number, then, for the next ABS Heurigen.

Will the 17th be sunny, stormy, record-breaking, reflective, chaotic, serene, or all of these before dessert?

We shall see.

Until Next Year

And so, with the 16th ABS Heurigen added to the history of our summer gatherings, we look ahead to 2027 and the 17th ABS Heurigen.

May the wine be good, the weather merciful, the company cheerful, and the payment systems forgiving.

Thank you for coming, thank you for returning, and thank you for keeping alive a tradition that needs very little explanation.

It works. That is enough.

See you next year at the 17th ABS Heurigen in 2027.

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