A new trend: organic wine production in Austria

Organic products are trendy nowadays. This trend also affects the production of wine in Austria. Many wineries are dealing with the methods of biological products. Many of them take the chance and change to organic wine production.  The increase in the production of organic wine can be traced back to the fact that a rising fraction of the Austrian inhabitants wish to have nutrition that is produced without using pesticides and/or chemical fertilizer.

The number of organic farms has increased by 31% since 1995. Therefore Austria is the leading organic country in the EU with a fraction of 20% of the total cultivated land. In the year 2008 547 organic wine producers were registered with an average area of 5,1 ha. Between 2005 and 2009 the total organic wine area has almost doubled from 179 ha to 321ha. The highest increase could be found in Burgenland and Vienna. In total 7,8% of the total wine area is cultivated organically in 2009.

In Styria the union of organic wine producers organizes an organic wine tasting on the 11^th of May 2013 in Southern Styria to promote this year’s vintage.

Still organic production is a minority, even Austria. How about your consumption behaviour of organic wine? Do you drink organic wine? Do you deliberately buy organic wine?