High hopes for wine production in Austria

 Rebecca Musgrave

Wine-makers were more than satisfied after the first drinking of the new harvest in Deutschkreutz, in the district of Oberpullendorf in Burgenland province, yesterday evening (Thurs). After a long, warm summer growers expected not only a high quality vintage but hope that the harvest of over 715,000 hectolitres in Burgenland will make up for last year’s production which was 54 per cent lower.

“The demand is great. We will fill some of the bottles earlier this year in order to provide for these markets. With this vintage we can recapture the market again,” said Burgenland’s Minister for Agriculture Andreas Liegenfeld (ÖVP).

The yield in Austria in 2010 was about 1.7 million hectolitres and in 2011 there will be around 2.4 million hectolitres.

Despite this want to make up for last year’s deficit, the wine industry will keep up its quality offensive, explained President of the Austrian Winegrowers association, Josef Pleil. “It is not our aim to go with the cheap markets but rather we want to conquer the high-priced wine market and for this we are ready to compete with all our might,” he said.