Austrian appellation changes?

Salut/Hi John Gunn,

le/on Wed, 09 Jul 2003 04:06:55 GMT, tu disais/you said:-

Is it possible that you're thinking about changes in _German_ wine naming law? Having boxed themselves into a total mess in 1971, they have spent the last 30 years trying to work out how to undo it without giving the appearance of doing so. One perceived need was to enable people to know whether a wine was good or not, so they have created a sort of "Grand Cru" status, for top sites. I saw some of the proposals for these new top end appellations while in Bordeaux, They can have one of three names depending upon which state the wine comes from. Yes, folks, this is "simplifying" things German style. The wines were stellar.

There was a blurb in WS that they will change it to a more consumer friendly version. It says the two main factors will be varietal and quality.

John Gunn wrote in news:Xns93B3616202A88johnlgunnqwestnetnos@207.225.159.7:

I am not Michael and I am not a wine journalist, but at least I am Austrian :-). So I don't know anything of a big overhaul, basically because there is no real appelation system existing (until now, and in the sense of, for instance, France). There will be appelations now called DAC (Districtus Austria Controllatus). Wines that carry the DAC label must be from a certain region (obviously) but they must also be from a defined grape. In the case of the first DAC region (Weinviertel), the grape is Grüner Veltliner.

For more information:

I think, this is a kint of marketing thing.

Hope that helps!

Regards, Robert

Robert Ruzitschka wrote in news:Xns93B4671614250ruzitschkarmaccom@158.226.135.1:

Thank you, Robert. The link was very helpful.

If the intent is to "brand" a region and associate it with a particular grape, I'm wondering how this will work in regions that produce both top quality Rieslings and Gruner Veltliners?

John

John Gunn wrote in news:Xns93B4AE1B59327johnlgunnqwestnetnos@207.225.159.8:

Hi John, good question! The grape is selected by a wine comitee, composed of producers and negociants from the region. Actually, it is also possible to designate more than one DAC grape (but this kind of destroys the whole concept).

How this will be handled e.g. in the Wachau is beyond me. But I guess the top producers don't care a lot about the DAC. They have (especially in the Wachau) their well established quality categories.

Regards, Robert

It happens that I might be ;-)

Thank you from my part too, Robert.

It's not as simple as this. Obviously for Weinviertel (with 52% planted in Grüner Veltliner and no othe grape reaching 10%) there is no problem, as it will be in Mittlburgenland (52% Blaufränkisch).

Ototh, DAC does not mean the choice of one grape only. Thermenregion ist thinking about a white (pinot blanc, chardonnay) and a red cuvée (pinot noir, st. laurent) with free choice of proportions.

Wachau has already decided *not* to have DAC. Since it's up to the regional committees to put down what they want, we won't see a Wachau DAC for a long time. The same would be true for norther Buregnland (Neusieldersee and Neusiedlersee-Hügelland) where many varieties are grown, both in red, white and sweet.

M.