Austria : Wine Law

Question 1

Austria : PDO/PGI terms

Answer 1

• PDO /PDI terms:
• Wein - without Geographicla Indication
• Landwein - with Protected Geographic Indication PGI
• Qualitatswein : Protected Desigantion of Origin PDO - must meet min. government standards with inspection number on the label
• These may also be labelled :
• Klassik - wine with a vintage declared and showing varietal charachter
• *Reserve - * dry wines with a min. 13 % abv, harvested and released later than standard wines
• Praditkatswein - based on must wieght at time of harvest
• TBA wines from Rust, on Lake Neusiedlersee are labelled *Ausbruch *
• There is no Kabinett wine classifiaction system in Austria
• *

Question 2

Austria : DAC

Answer 2

• Districtus Austriae Controllatus
• Austria introduced an amendant to the wine law legistaltion is 2002 to create an appellation system based on typicity
• The first DAC region was Weinveirtel in 2001
• There are 17 inlcuding Kamptal, WAchaus etc
• Only permitted grapes are allowed in each DAC to ensure regional typicity
• Wines that do not meet this criteria will be rejected
• This also means new -wave wines may rejected even if they are high quality
• Wachau also requires all grapes are picked by hand
• For DAC wines there is option to use the quality hierarchy :
• Regional -Gebeitswein
• Villlage - Ortswein
• Single vineyard - Reidenwein

Question 3

Austria: Two Associations for quality and origin

Answer 3

1) Osterreichische Traditionsweinguter -
1992 OTW is a group of producers in Kamptal, Wachau and Wagram and Vienna who have been classifying their vineyards in a similar fashion to Burgundy - based on soil and climate
In 2023, 90 vineyards became Erste Lage - must use traditional grapes from the region

2) Vinea Wachau -
Name of the group of top quality producers that have classifiactions systems for the wines of of the region