Wine with protected designation of origin

A picture shows the logo of PDO

(German g.U.: English PDO=Protected Designation of Origin, French AOP=Appellation d'Origine Protégée, Italian Denominazione di Origine Protetta). Protected designation of origin and protected geographical indication are established and confirmed by the member countries and reported to Brussels. They are, therefore, guaranteed also by EU law.

A picture shows the Banderole
Official seal (banderole), Austrian quality wine at the closing (Quality wine)

Quality wine

In the Austrian wine law, the traditional designation of “Qualitätswein” has replaced the community law designation of  “Wine with protected designation of origin”.

Quality wine comes from an Austrian wine-growing region and from one or more of the 35 permitted quality grape varieties. In marketing, we differentiate between generic wine-growing regions (each of the 9 federal states) and 16 specific wine-growing regions, from the Wachau to Weststeiermark, of which eight are DAC areas. DAC wines are region-typical quality wines which have been legally defined by ministerial regulation.

In Austria, the Prädikat wines are also quality wines. They are quality wines of a special ripeness and harvest method. Also, they can be designated as generic (“Burgenland”) or with a specific origin (Südoststeiermark) as long as the specific region does not have a DAC designation for other wine styles. It is even imaginable that, for a suitable region, a DAC especially for Prädikat wines could be created.