High level from Gemischter Satz to top red wine

Around 460 wines from over 170 wineries

The "Austrian Wine Awards" project was organised by the agency ÖWM Solutions on behalf of Österreich Wein Marketing (Wein-Plus) and in collaboration with DWS. ÖWM invited Austrian winegrowers to submit up to three wines for the campaign. Entries were submitted digitally via the ÖWM portal, which was also responsible for collecting the wines.

Over 170 wineries from Austria sent in almost 460 wines. The sample and counter bottles were sent from the collection centre at the Austrian Wine Institute (ÖWI) in Korneuburg to Wein-Plus Solutions in Erlangen at the beginning of June, where they were recorded and photographed. At the same time, the agency received the relevant information about all the wines submitted - in compliance with data protection regulations, of course.

Wein-Plus Solutions compiled the wines into twelve tasting flights of 38 or 39 samples each, with each flight comprising white and red wines as well as - depending on their availability - rosé, orange, sparkling and sweet wines. The wines were prepared for blind tasting by the expert jury, sorted by flight and tasting order and sent to Koblenz.

Blind tasting and evaluation according to the WSET® system

The atmosphere in the DWS premises is now concentrated: The jury members each sit in front of five wine glasses, a spittoon, the tasting list and the WSET® evaluation sheets. The abbreviation stands for Wine & Spirit Education Trust - for over 50 years the most renowned international educational institution in the international wine industry, based in London. Its highest level of wine education is the "WSET® Level 4 Diploma in Wines" (DipWSET) course, which is also offered in Germany by the DWS.

The wines are labelled with a letter and number code in the tasting list and on the bottle. The list determines the tasting order and only reveals the type of wine, the vintage, the grape variety(ies), the designation of origin and the alcohol content. The jury members do not know exactly what goes into the glass. They rate the wines according to the WSET® system, whereby the quality judgement can range from "poor" (weak) to "acceptable" (satisfactory), "good" (good), "very good" (very good) to "outstanding" (excellent).

Each pair of judges must come to a clear conclusion when assessing the wines. That's why they not only sniff and taste, but also quietly discuss. There is enough time for each wine, as the samples are tasted in two rounds throughout the day: A maximum of 20 samples are tasted in the morning and afternoon. All jury members have several years of experience in professional wine tasting and assessment - after all, most of them work in the specialised trade or in gastronomy. The tasting is supervised by four supervisors who work as lecturers on the WSET® Diploma course at the DWS.

High quality level of Austrian wines

After around eight hours, it's done: all the wines have been expertly tasted and assessed. Johannes Steinmetz (DipWSET), head of the DWS, is satisfied: "This special tasting was excellent training for our graduates, giving them even more knowledge and experience when it comes to Austrian wines. They have fulfilled their responsibility for the conscientious judgement of the wines with full awareness."

Supervisor Christian Weisenstein (DipWSET) was also positive: "The large number of wines submitted meant a high logistical and organisational effort, which the team in Koblenz was able to master professionally. The flights were perfectly coordinated. All the wines were judged professionally, highly focussed and precisely by a highly motivated, conscientious panel of experts. The quality level of the wines to be judged was high and the wine selection showed an exciting, representative cross-section of Austria as a wine country."

The high level of quality is indeed remarkable: 81 per cent of all wines submitted were rated "good" or "very good", with over nine per cent even receiving the highest rating of "outstanding". The proportion of wines rated as unsatisfactory was well below one per cent. "It is remarkable what the winegrowers in Austria are producing in terms of really good quality across all wine categories. There is a lot of fun in the glass," summarised supervisor Ulrike Ferres (DipWSET).

Almost 250 awards presented

"A big compliment goes to the organisers of the event - everything went very smoothly, both in terms of time and tasting," Ferres continues. "The event was certainly a special experience for the jury members. Everyone was committed and focussed on their work. The positive energy that was released was unbelievable!" This impression was confirmed by juror and supervisor Betty Heitkämper (DipWSET), who added: "The dialogue during the breaks with the very competent colleagues was fun. We were all impressed by the high quality of the Austrian wines."

A total of 244 wines were honoured in at least one of 54 categories as part of the Austrian Wine Awards. The categories include wine colours and grape varieties including Piwi varieties, cuvées and Gemischtem Satz, designations of origin (wine-growing regions, generic and specific wine-growing regions, single vineyard wines) as well as other categories such as semi-sparkling and sparkling wines, Prädikat wines or alternative wines.