Louis Thomas heads to Vienna for VieVinum and looks into some of the key trends that could well decide the future direction of Austrian wine. The immense imperial grandeur of the Hofburg, where VieVinum is held, is a reminder that Vienna was once the centre of a truly vast empire that stretched from Ukraine to Italy. But while Austria honours its traditions and heritage, it certainly does not live in the past – Vienna today is the modern capital of a thriving Central European democracy. In much the same way, Austria’s wine sector is far from stagnant. It is adapting while trying to preserve its identity, embracing new classification systems, grapes and styles. It might be tempting to consider Austria as a ‘plucky underdog’ when compared to other wine growing powers like Italy and France – its almost 45,000 hectares under vine is less than half of the viticultural area of Bordeaux – but such a view is entirely patronising: Austria has millennia of grape growing history, and has been at the forefront of many a viticultural and oenological development. Its wine scene is exciting, diverse, and ever-changing – simply put, producers from across the world would do well to learn from what is happening in Austria. Single life The biggest development in Austrian wine, arguably this century, was last year’s approval of a new vineyard classification system. In his Austrian Wine Update presentation, Chris Yorke, the CEO of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, joked that “we love a
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Wine
