The cool conditions in Austria's mountain locations have long been a handicap for viticulture. This is now changing: the wines from there are becoming more and more interesting. Yet quality viticulture is only just taking off here.
_OeWM_WSNA.jpg)
© OeWM WSNAThe wine region Bergland Austria unites the wines of the provinces of Carinthia, Upper Austria, Tyrol, Salzburg and Vorarlberg under one roof, whereby Carinthia is included but also retains its name as a wine-growing region. A total of 220 ha are planted in the Bergland - 123 in Carinthia, 78 in Upper Austria, 14 in Tyrol and 5 in Vorarlberg. In the city of Salzburg there is currently only one tiny vineyard on the Mönchsberg, whose 500 bottles are sold for charity.
Austria's alpine wine-growing regions often have a centuries-old wine-growing tradition, as many place and field names still indicate. In Carinthia, viticulture has been documented since Roman times, in Upper Austria it was an important economic factor. The market town of Aschach on the Danube, for example, has a grape in its coat of arms. And in Vorarlberg, the area under vines was once a hundred times larger than today, at around 500 ha.