the art of austrian wine
The event featured more than 100 different wines from Austria’s top winegrowing regions and gave Norway’s professional wine community an in-depth insight into what Austrian wine stands for – high quality, local know-how, and sustainable production. An additional wine tasting was organized the week before on the premises of the Stockholm office of Advantage Austria Nordics and a larger event with Austrian wine makers is already being planned for spring 2023.
Even though Austria is famous for the Alpes, its diverse climates and soils provide ideal conditions to produce some of the world’s finest wines. Austrian wine production can be traced back to the Celts and Romans (700 BC) and Austria’s flagship wine “Grüner Veltliner” dates back to the 10th century AD.
Today, Austria has 23,000 wine producers and is responsible for 1 % of the global wine production. More than a third is being exported, with Germany, Switzerland, and the U.S. leading the destination list and the Nordic region not far behind. Virtually all of Austria’s fine wines are produced by small family wineries, which have been doing so for centuries. There are 35 grape varieties and while white wines are still dominant with 63 % of the vineyard area, the reds are catching up. After Grüner Veltliner (37 %), the red wine variety Zweigelt has become the second most important (15 %) grape in Austria.
Austria is also leading in cultivating and promoting new varieties with Pet Nat, Organe Wine and PIWI.
If you need more information on Austrian wine producers and which Austrian wines you can find in Norway, please contact us at oslo@advantageaustria.org.
