Austria’s Wine Vineyards

A travel guide of where to go for Grüner Veltliner

If you’re visiting Austria and wish to experience some of the world’s best wines, you don’t need a guide to point you in the right direction. As soon as your plane touches ground in Vienna, you’re already in one of the country’s top wine regions. Because Austria is easy to travel (it’s about the size of Maine), the 16 wine-growing areas can easily be reached by train, car or bus.

Whether you’re staying in Salzburg, the birth place of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, or heading to a ski resort, you’re never far away from the best Austrian wine. One wine you will want to taste as you travel is Gruner Veltliner, a white wine described as having a peppery taste.

Five of the most renowned sommeliers in the world all chose Gruner Veltliner wine, grown and produced in Austria, in a blind wine-tasting conference held last April.

The five sommeliers who tasted and preferred the Gruner Veltiner were Andreas Larsson (Best Sommelier of the World 2007), Herve Pennequin (ranked third in 2004 of Best Sommelier of the World), Roger Dagorn (Sommelier Chanterelle & Master Sommelier), Mark Slater (James Beard Outstanding Wine Service Award 2007) and Dominique Laporte (2004 Best Sommelier of France and ranked third Best Sommelier of Europe in 2004).

Even though some of the most respected sommeliers in the world like Gruner Veltliner, it is surprisingly the most commonly planted grape variety in Austria. A guide might note that this particular grape is planted on 37 percent of the total vineyard acreage in Austria.

Of course that means you’ll find numerous varieties of Gruner Veltliner as you travel the beautiful countryside, but its most telling character is its spicy fragrance and peppery taste.

Approximately two-thirds of the wines produced in Austria are Qualitatswein, which are considered wines of quality.

Austria has its own wine laws to oversee the quality. The information required on labels includes origin, variety, vintage, quality designation, alcohol content, residual sugar, official control number, the producer and the bottler.

Five facts a travel guide can tell you about Austrian wines.
1- There are 16 wine-growing areas in Austria.
2- There are more than 30 grape varieties used to make wine in Austria
3- Austrians consume approximately 73 percent of the wine produced in their country.
4- Austria has approximately 20,000 small wine producing estates, which sell wine on the premises.
5- There are three general quality designations for Austrian wine: Tafelwein (table wine), Qualitätswein (wine of quality), and Prädikatswein (“certified” wine). The categories are determined by the sugar content of the grape must, expressed according to the KMW system.