Austria’s 25% organic milestone
A quarter of all of Austria’s Vineyards have been certified organic for the first time.
This means a total of 10,524ha under vine have been recognised as organic by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Agriculture.
Austria’s share of organic vineyards has been in first place amongst major wine producing countries since 2023 – 17.8% of Spain’s, 17.4% of France’s and 14.6% of Italy’s vineyards are organic.
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The number of organic vineyards has been increasing in Austria since the year 2000, when only 1.7% of the country’s vineyards were certified.
Chris Yorke, CEO of Austrian Wine Marketing Board, said: “A quarter of all viticulture being organic is an incredible achievement. We must not forget that we have to cope with more difficult climatic conditions in Austria, compared to other, bigger wine-producing countries.
“But our winemakers are convinced that environmentally conscious viticulture is the right way to go in the future – and they are still going this way, despite the difficult times we are facing right now.”
Organic viticulture aims to improve the health, fertility and biodiversity of a vineyard’s ecosystem.
This involves prohibiting aids to winemakers such as herbicides and easily soluble mineral fertilisers, so organic producers spend more time managing their soil and caring for their vines, and risk lower yields in an unfavourable climate.
However, there are incentives for vineyards to use environmentally conscious production techniques, as there is high demand for those kinds of wines in markets such as Scandinavia and Canada and amongst certain consumer groups.
Additionally, one in 10 organic vineyards in Austria are cultivated biodynamically, a technique that keeps the use of technology to a minimum and focuses on a holistic understanding of cultivation. These wineries are either certified by Demeter or respect-BIODYN, two organisations that provide biodynamic wineries with a code of practice.
Other environmental programmes are also common in the Austrian wine industry, with 27% of vineyards certified by Sustainable Austria (Nachhaltig Austria), which evaluates 380 criteria, such as cultivation methods and the weight wine bottles. In the last five years the area they certify has more than tripled.
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