Austrian wine goes east

Austrian wine is proving increasingly in the world wine market. On the International Wine-Growers Day in Großriedenthal, Austria, this week hundreds of producers gathered to discuss further export opportunities, particularly in East Asia.

Despite a low yield throughout the course of the year the last two years have seen record exports of wine from Austria of around 125 million Euros. The country’s wine is particularly popular in China but only around two per cent of the Austrian exports were enjoyed in the Far East. White wines from Lower Austria have received a particularly good response internationally over the last few years.

Wine grower Toni Bodenstein from Weißenkirchen believes however that there is much more potential here. “The promising markets are the Asian countries such as China, Singapore but Japan is also getting stronger and better,” he explained.

Susanne Staggl from Austrian Wine Marketing believes that small wine producers also have the opportunity to be successful in the international export market. “We must give them a chance and I believe that we can do well if we focus on our local grape varieties and Austria as a small wine growing country with tradition and family behind the production,” said Staggl.