🗺️ Austrian wine

Austrian wine is the wine and winemaking of Austria. According to OIV estimates, in 2025 the country produced 2.5 million hectolitres — 17.5% more than a year earlier and the most since 2018. Warm days and cool nights at the end of summer helped. Austrians drink about 2.4 million hl a year, and since 2015 this level has hardly changed.

The 2009 Wine Act divides the country into three wine lands: Weinland (Burgenland, Lower Austria and Vienna), Bergland (Carinthia, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol, Vorarlberg) and Steirerland (Styria). Within them lie the wine areas — Wachau, Kamptal, Kremstal, Weinviertel, Südsteiermark and others. The EU's eAmbrosia register lists 27 Austrian designations of origin and 3 geographical indications.

Qualitätswein, or quality wine, is made from grapes of a single area. The sugar content of the juice is at least 15° on the Austrian KMW scale, and the wine passes a laboratory and tasting check. It then receives a state test number, printed on the label, and the bottle is closed with a banderole on the neck.

A separate level is DAC (Districtus Austriae Controllatus): quality wines typical of their area; 18 DAC regulations are currently in force. «Weinviertel DAC» is Grüner Veltliner, and «Wiener Gemischter Satz DAC» is a white wine from at least three varieties of one Viennese vineyard, picked and processed together. Sweet wines are labelled with Prädikat terms — from Spätlese (from 19° KMW) to Trockenbeerenauslese (from 30°).

Why it matters to you. A banderole on the neck and a state test number on the label mean the wine is an Austrian Qualitätswein that has passed the official check. DAC with an area name hints at the wine's style, and the word Kabinett means a light wine without added sugar for enrichment, no stronger than 12.9%.