In the Austrian Wine Law, the traditional term “Landwein” replaces the Community law term “Wine with Protected Geographical Indication”.

A picture shows the logo of PGI
English: PGI = Protected Geographical Indica­tion; German: g.g.A. = geschützte geografische Angabe; French: IGP = Indication Géographique Protégée; Italian: IGP = Indicazione Geografica Protetta

The areas of origin for grapes used in production of “Landwein” are the winegrowing areas Weinland, Steirerland or Bergland*. 100% of the grapes used in its production must come exclusively from one of these wineproducing regions.

The use of the name of a more detailed geographical entity than the wineproducing region, as well as any other product name than Landwein (in particular “Wine with Protected Geographical Indication”) is not permitted.

Wine may be offered on the market under the designation “Landwein” when:

  1. it is produced exclusively from grapes, which were harvested in a single winegrowing area
  2. it is produced exclusively from grape varieties permitted for the production of Qualitätswein
  3. the juice of the wine grapes displays a minimum must weight of 14 °KMW, and the extant alcohol content meets a minimum of 8.5%
  4. it exhibits characteristics typical to the designation
  5. the total acid content, figured as tartaric acid, meets a minimum of 4 g/l
  6. the maximum yield per hectare (7,500 l/ha or 10,000 kg grapes/ha) is not exceeded and
  7. it is free of defects in appearance, smell and flavour.
A map shows the three Austrian winegrowing areas Weinland, Steirerland and Bergland.
© Austrian Wine

* Until the 17th century, there were significant winegrowing regions also in Austria's western federal states. But climatic changes, economical crises and the major success of breweries let winegrowing in the cooler parts of the country dry up almost completely by the 19th century. Today, small pockets of winegrowing do still exist, and there even is a small renaissance underway in the Bergland winegrowing region. The current vineyard areas are in Kärnten (125 ha), Oberösterreich (73 ha), Vorarlberg (5 ha), Tirol (12 ha) and Salzburg (0 ha).

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