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A new highlight in the discussion about the introduction of a site classification in Austria, which gained momentum a few weeks ago with the anonymously published website glueckilchelage.at: The trigger was a quote from Michel Moosbrugger, chairman of the Österreichische Traditionsweingüter (ÖTW) association active in Lower Austria, which is striving for a statutory site classification. He had initiated the founding of an ÖTW regional association in Burgenland. The local regional wine committee and the marketing organisation Wein Burgenland responded sharply. "If the traditional Austrian wineries, starting from the Kamp and Kremstal valleys in Lower Austria, believe they have to put out feelers into Burgenland, this is clearly rejected here. We don't need this elitist way of thinking in fine clothes, with which some companies hope to improve their position on the wine markets, in Burgenland," it says in a press release. And the fact that "from the distant Kamptal, there is a need to catch up in Burgenland origin marketing" shows the "arrogance and arrogance of this movement". This refers to the ÖTW, whose founding members are located in the Kamptal and Kremstal wine-growing regions.
In a unanimous resolution, the Burgenland Regional Wine Committee directly opposes the site classification system, which was put on a legal basis last year and was intended to create equal conditions for all winegrowers - including those who are not members of associations such as ÖTW. "If some want to classify their vineyards into Erste and Große Lagen in an elitist, elaborate and past-loving manner, the wine industry in Burgenland wants a clearly understandable pyramid of origin for all winegrowers in this province," it says.
Christian Zechmeister, Managing Director of Wein Burgenland and Weintourismus Burgenland, puts it a little less drastically: "Our winegrowers are self-confident, well-educated, cosmopolitan people who are down-to-earth and deeply rooted in their homeland and bear a great deal of responsibility for the landscape and society in Burgenland. In Burgenland, there should not be two classes of wineries in the future, but rather a togetherness. Whether small or large, well-known or insider tip, export-orientated or farm-gate vendors, simply for all Burgenland winegrowers".
The Burgenland wine organisations want to position the origin more strongly on the basis of the origin pyramid anchored in the DAC regulations with regional, local and vineyard wines under the umbrella brand Burgenland. The corresponding wine styles are also to be defined. If the Burgenland Regional Wine Committee does not apply for a site classification, this cannot take place there. However, winegrowing policy cannot prohibit the founding of an ÖTW Burgenland association. Membership in such an association would also not be a reason for exclusion from legal institutions.
(al / Source: Vinaria)