Hahnenkamm Week · 18–25 January 2027
Kitzbühel, on the Mountain and at the Table
A dining and wine guide for Bernard Gaudreault's fiftieth birthday week, built around three days on the Hahnenkamm circuit and two evenings in the village.
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Every place in this guide in one view. The week's actual picks for Bernard are in red; everything else this guide mentions, from the alternatives list to the wine producers worth knowing, is in grey. Tap a dot for the name and a link to Google Maps.
Part One
On the Slopes, in the Village
Three days on the Hahnenkamm circuit and two evenings in the village: a hut near the race mountain itself, a stop at the far southern end of the circuit toward Pass Thurn, and a classic Alm directly on the Hahnenkamm, paired with two very different dinners.
On-Slope Lunch
Berggasthof SonnbühelKitzbühel
A legendary ski hut near the Hahnenkamm since 1924, recently remade as a modern Alpine restaurant without losing the three nostalgic Stuben or the chef's table down in the wine cellar. The kitchen runs Austrian and Mediterranean side by side, from premium steak cuts to grilled octopus and a Wagyu burger, which makes it the more ambitious opener for the week than a standard hut lunch. Rated 86 points in Falstaff's 2026 Restaurant & Inn Guide and 92 in its 2025 Hut Guide.
Logistics: Ski-in.
Visit →PinzgablickPass Thurn
A straightforward, self-service stop at Pass Thurn, furthest south on the circuit and right at the border of the Pinzgau region the name points to. Good Tyrolean basics, a goulash worth stopping for, and a Germknödel for anyone with a sweet tooth, in a room with some of the widest views on the whole ski area. Less polished than the other lunches this week, and better for it on a day meant to stay on skis. It's a long traverse to get there from Kitzbühel, but Thursday is a training day on the Streif rather than a race day, so there's no reason to rush back, and the run down is as much the point of the day as lunch is.
Logistics: Ski-in.
Visit →SeidlalmHahnenkamm
A classic Alm right on the Hahnenkamm circuit, the kind of hut that regulars keep coming back to rather than a one-off for the view. The kitchen sticks to proper Austrian cooking, the schnitzel in particular, and the terrace looks straight down the race course. Reachable on skis directly from the Hahnenkamm lifts, which makes it an easy, unhurried stop between runs. The one dish not to miss: the Moosbärenschmarrn, a regional classic made with wild blueberries hand-harvested around the Seidlalm's own lake. It doesn't travel beyond this hut, which is exactly the point.
Logistics: Ski-in.
Visit →Evening Dining
Lois SternDinner · Fusion · Kitzbühel
A family-run room in the centre of town, small enough that the chef works the kitchen alone and the rest of the family runs the floor. The cooking leans Thai and broader Southeast Asian, a deliberate break from a week otherwise built around Tyrolean and Austrian plates, and it does so with real technique rather than as a novelty. Portions run modest, so it rewards ordering generously across the menu rather than sticking to one dish each.
Logistics: book ahead for race week; the room is small and fills quickly.
Visit →ZumaDinner · Sushi · Kitzbühel
The sharpest way to go beyond Austrian cooking for a night. Zuma's Kitzbühel outpost, listed in the 2026 MICHELIN Guide Austria, runs the same international, robata-and-sushi format as its London and Hong Kong siblings in a sleek, low-lit room near the old town; expect modern plates built to share across a long table, which suits a larger group better than a set menu would. For something more low-key, Rozu Sushi Bar in the village is the casual, same-cuisine alternative.
Logistics: book ahead, this is the most in-demand table on the list; kitchen runs 17:00–23:00.
Visit →For the Rest of the Week
More Worth Considering
Kitzbühel carries twenty Gault&Millau toques across the town, more than any Tyrolean resort outside Lech or Ischgl, and the shortlist above leaves a great deal on the table. These are the next places I'd point to, drawn from Gault&Millau, the MICHELIN Guide, and Falstaff, plus two from the Harisch Hotels group that owns much of Kitzbühel's grand hotel history.
More to Eat
Neuwirt
The dining room inside Hotel Schwarzer Adler, widely regarded as the top table in Kitzbühel: fish, veal, and a classic Tafelspitz done properly.
Visit →Mocking
Hearty Austrian home cooking with contemporary touches, strongest on meat. A good middle ground between a hut and a dress-up dinner.
Visit →Bärenbichl
Further south along the circuit toward Pass Thurn; pork knuckle and regional plates in an unpretentious room.
Visit →Rozu Sushi Bar
The low-key, everyday version of a sushi night in Kitzbühel, for whenever Zuma's room feels like more than the evening calls for.
Visit →Restaurant Tennerhof
The gourmet room at the Relais & Châteaux Tennerhof, just above the old town; composed, contemporary cooking in one of Kitzbühel's most polished hotel settings.
Visit →Seebichl
A lakeside room by the Schwarzsee pairing Austrian technique with Mediterranean flavors; a change of scenery from the old-town tables, a short drive or taxi from the centre.
Visit →Minglers Sportalm
The dining room of a small, family-run gourmet hotel in Kirchberg, built around a multi-course tasting menu that regularly draws Michelin-level praise despite the modest, unshowy setting. Open only four nights a week and by reservation, so this is a plan-ahead booking rather than a walk-in option.
Visit →Restaurant Kupferstub'n
A cozy, Tyrolean-style room in Kirchberg built around high-quality steak, run by a locally known grill chef. Warm, attentive service and a menu that rewards carnivores in particular; a straightforward counterpoint to the week's more composed tables.
Visit →More to Drink
Leo Hillinger Wineshop & Bar
A shop and bar in the centre of town built around one of Austria's best-known winemakers. The easiest stop for a glass before dinner or a few bottles to bring home.
Visit →DEWALDs Weinladen
Rated 89 points in Falstaff's 2026 Bar Guide. A quieter room for an Austrian-forward list and a tarte flambée on the side.
Visit →Eisbar
One of the biggest names in Kirchberg's après-ski scene, with live music most afternoons running into the evening.
Visit →Schneebar Oberkaser
Starts on the slope at last-run time and carries straight into the village without much of a gap.
Visit →Something Different
Gaisberg Toboggan Run
A floodlit night toboggan run with a hut at the bottom for a beer once everyone's down. A good change of pace from another dinner.
Visit →Part Two
Austria's Wine, for a Week Among Racers
Austria doesn't export its best bottles the way France or Italy does, so most of what follows is unfamiliar outside the country. The producers below are the names to look for on a wine list or to ask after at a Weinhandlung in town; the grapes are what to recognize when the label doesn't help.
White
Austria's signature grape and most-planted variety. Peppery, high-acid, ranges from everyday Heuriger wine to some of the country's longest-lived whites.
A minority planting but Austria's most prestigious white, concentrated in the Danube's steep terraces: Wachau, Kamptal, Kremstal.
Unrelated to Rhine Riesling. Light and crisp as a still wine, and the backbone of most Austrian Sekt.
Styria's name for Chardonnay. Richer and often barrel-aged, the region's answer to white Burgundy.
Pinot Blanc. Fuller and quieter than Grüner Veltliner, with enough weight to sit next to richer food.
A Südsteiermark specialty grown on the same steep slopes as the region's other whites. Racier and more pungent than its Loire or New World counterparts.
Another Südsteiermark signature: intensely aromatic and grapey on the nose, bone dry on the palate. A natural aperitif.
A Lower Austrian original, softer and nuttier than Grüner Veltliner. Increasingly rare, worth seeking out where it still is planted.
Red
Austria's most serious red: structured, peppery, built to age. Burgenland, especially the Leithaberg and Eisenberg, is its home.
A Blaufränkisch × St. Laurent cross and Austria's most-planted red. Juicy and food-friendly; quality runs from simple to serious.
Pinot Noir's elegant, early-ripening cousin. Smaller plantings, loyal following, a close relative of what Québec bottles under the same name.
Grown seriously in the Thermenregion and parts of Burgenland, on the cooler sites that suit it. Still a minority wine, increasingly taken seriously.
Planted mainly around the Neusiedlersee and usually blended with each other or with Blaufränkisch into Burgenland's structured, Bordeaux-style reds.
Austria's everyday red: light, soft, and low in tannin. Mostly Lower Austria and Burgenland, meant to be drunk young.
Styria's own red grape, almost always vinified into Schilcher, a sharp, high-acid rosé rather than a red wine proper.
Sekt
Austria's sparkling wine, and the right way to open the week
Austrian Sekt g.U. runs in three tiers by lees-aging and harvest method: Klassik, Reserve (minimum 18 months on the lees), and Grosse Reserve (minimum 30 months, hand-harvested, single-vineyard). For a week built around a fiftieth birthday, a Reserve or Grosse Reserve is the better opener than a Klassik.
| Producer | Region | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Bründlmayer | Kamptal | The benchmark house; the Brut and the Extra Brut Reserve are both serious, traditional-method wines, not an afterthought beside their still wines. |
| Schlumberger | Vienna | Austria's oldest sparkling house, founded 1842. The classic, widely-poured choice. |
| Steininger | Kamptal | A dedicated Sekt specialist rather than a still-wine producer with a side project. |
| Jurtschitsch | Kamptal | Biodynamic estate; their Sekt shares the mineral precision of their still Grüner and Riesling. |
| Szigeti | Burgenland | Large range, reliable quality across the tiers; a good everyday Reserve. |
White Wines
The Danube terraces: Wachau, Kamptal, Kremstal
These are the producers whose Grüner Veltliner and Riesling define Austrian white wine at its best, and the ones worth asking for by name on a restaurant list.
| Producer | Region | Why |
|---|---|---|
| F.X. Pichler | Wachau | Often called the region's benchmark; both Grüner Veltliner and Riesling at the top of their category. |
| Weingut Prager | Wachau | Precise, age-worthy Riesling from the Achleiten and Klaus vineyards. |
| Emmerich Knoll | Wachau | Understated, classically built wines that reward a few years in bottle. |
| Franz Hirtzberger | Wachau | The Singerriedel Riesling is one of the Wachau's most collected single-vineyard wines. |
| Bründlmayer | Kamptal | Deep range of Grüner Veltliner and Riesling, from everyday to the Heiligenstein grand cru. |
| Schloss Gobelsburg | Kamptal | A Cistercian estate with centuries of winemaking behind it, now making some of the region's most elegant Grüner. |
| Nigl | Kremstal | Powerful, mineral Grüner Veltliner from granite and gneiss soils. |
A caution on serving temperature: these whites close down if poured too cold. Ten to twelve degrees, not straight from an ice bucket, lets the Grüner's pepper and the Riesling's stone fruit actually show.
Red Wines
Burgenland: Blaufränkisch's home ground
For one serious Austrian red to bring a case of home, a single-vineyard Blaufränkisch from one of these five is the move.
| Producer | Region | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Moric | Mittelburgenland | Roland Velich's old-vine Blaufränkisch project did more than any other to earn the grape international respect. |
| Prieler | Leithaberg | The Leithaberg DAC Blaufränkisch is a textbook example of the limestone-soil style: lighter frame, higher acid, more savoury than fruity. |
| Krutzler | Südburgenland / Eisenberg | The Perwolff is the flagship, dense and structured; built for a decade in the cellar, not this week's table. |
| Umathum | Frauenkirchen | The Hallebühl bottling is a serious, long-lived Blaufränkisch from one of Burgenland's warmer corners. |
| Weninger | Horitschon | Biodynamic, old-vine fruit; consistently among the region's most food-friendly reds. |
These four are the vintages to anchor to when buying now, across both the whites above and these reds; 2015 remains the decade's benchmark where it can still be found, but it's getting scarce. Treat this as a general steer rather than gospel: vintage quality varies by producer and by exact parcel more than any blanket year rating admits, and a good producer in an "off" year often outperforms a mediocre one in a celebrated one.
Part Three
The Glass Matters Here Too
One fact worth knowing before pouring: Riedel, the glassmaker that invented the idea of a different glass shape for each wine, is Austrian. The factory sits in Kufstein, in Tyrol, roughly half an hour from the Hahnenkamm.
The Riedel family's glassworks began in Bohemia in 1756 and rebuilt itself in Kufstein after losing its original factories in the aftermath of the Second World War. It was Claus Riedel, in the 1950s and 60s, who proposed something that hadn't been tried before: that a wine's aroma and texture change with the shape of the glass it's served in, and that different grapes call for different shapes. His son Georg and grandson Maximilian built that idea into the company Riedel is today, the world's best-known name in stemware, still family-run, still fifty kilometers from the Streif finish line.
Which Glass for What
| Wine | Riedel line | Why this shape |
|---|---|---|
| Grüner Veltliner / Riesling | Riesling / Grüner Veltliner (Veritas or Performance) | A narrower bowl holds the aromatics and keeps the acid from reading as sharp. |
| Blaufränkisch / Zweigelt | Syrah / Pinot Noir (Veritas or Performance) | Blaufränkisch's structure wants the broader Syrah bowl; the more elegant St. Laurent or lighter Zweigelt does better in a Pinot Noir shape. |
| Sekt / sparkling | Champagne Wine Glass | A tulip, not a flute: Riedel's own case is that a flute flatters bubbles and flattens aroma, where the wider tulip gives both. |
No need to travel with stemware, but it's worth mentioning over dinner: the glass on the table was very likely designed less than an hour from where the day's skiing happened.