Natural wines from Austria

The Austrian natural wine community emerged in Styria in the early 2000s and blossomed in the 2010s together with the natural wine fair Karakterre, organised by Croatian wine importer Marko Kovac, which is also financially supported by the Austrian state. Thanks to winemakers like Maria and Sepp Muster from Styria and Eduard Tscheppe and Stephanie Tscheppe-Eselböck from Gut Oggau in Burgenland, Austrian natural wine is now the rage in natural wine bars from Tokyo to Brooklyn.

In the meantime they have become the superstars of the Austrian natural wine scene and their wines can be found around the globe. The trend "Natural Wine" is booming, and next to France - the cradle of natural wines - Austria is clearly at the forefront. Connoisseurs increasingly want to buy Austrian natural wine. This is thanks to the visionary winemakers Christian Tschida, Sepp Muster, Fred Loimer, Werlitsch, Franz Strohmeier, Gut Oggau, Gernot Heinrich and many more. No wonder, then, that most of the wines from Austria are exported outside of Austria; they are particularly popular overseas and in Scandinavian countries.

In the 1980s, there were numerous attempts to deceive with regulations such as unauthorized additives or manipulations such as label fraud and blending with inferior wines – such incidents even date back to ancient times.

The history of the wine scandal began in the early 1970s when efforts were made to prevent the migration of many small farmers. Winemakers in the border regions were promised a replanting of 0.5 hectares per operation to prevent them from entering the Vienna job market. However, after just 5 years, this led to an expansion of vineyard areas by around 15,000 hectares, resulting in overproduction. The soil was filled with artificial fertilizers to maximize vine performance. In 1970, Austria produced one-third more wine than the actual wine consumption. The competition in wine sales was fierce because wine consumption declined throughout Europe in the 1980s, and there was also a high demand for sweet wines in Germany at that time. To continue selling wine, attempts were made to simulate high-quality predicate wines from simple table wines by adding diethylene glycol, and this was done at low prices.

Without delving into specific numbers, it can be said that the extent was disastrous – deception and forgery were rampant. The wine scandal was complete with the discovery of glycol in 1985, but it also marked the birth of a counter-movement, as many winemakers did not want to be lumped together with the "blenders." Consequently, many wineries began to rigorously transition to sustainable farming practices.

After numerous blame assignments and calls for resignations in the Austrian government and the wine industry, new rules had to be developed. The result was the strictest wine law in the world, signaling a resurgence in terms of quality and sustainability. Foremost among those leading the charge were visionary winemakers such as Gernot Heinrich, Fred Loimer, Gerhard Pittnauer, Claus Preisinger, Otto Knaus, Manfred Tement, Franz Weninger, and many others, who recognized early on the need to set new agricultural standards to advance the shift towards sustainable viticulture.

In recent years, wine has been increasingly moulded or even designed. Attempts have been made to copy certain wines or flavours using various methods and aids from the food industry. Tschida, Gut Oggau, Werlitsch & Co swim against the tide, they all work according to strict biodynamic guidelines, rely on elaborate manual labour in the vineyard and follow the "low-intervention" maxim in the cellar, and yet each has its own individual, incomparable signature. As the vineyards are vital and robust thanks to this regenerative philosophy, they can skilfully dispense with all fining or filtration agents and large quantities of sulphur, because a good, healthy must finds its own way. Wine is made as it used to be, the process is accompanied carefully and sustainably without manipulating it technologically.