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Austria's first producer association for wine is being established in Lower Austria. As reported by the magazine Vinaria, the regional winegrowers' association has unanimously approved the necessary amendment to the statutes.
This establishes Lower Austria as the first Austrian wine-growing region to lay the groundwork for the replacement of the Regional Wine Committees. According to EU regulation, producer associations must replace them starting in 2027.
So far, the Regional Wine Committees are responsible for the quality specifications of the designation of origin "Districtus Austriae Controllatus" (DAC). Currently, there are 18 DAC designations in Austria. They are recognized as protected designations of origin in the sense of the EU wine market reform.
However, in EU terminology, the DAC specifications are product specifications. According to the regulation, the protective assiciations are responsible for them, to which only wine producers from the respective area may belong as voting members. Since wine merchants with voting rights are also represented in the Regional Wine Committees, they no longer meet the EU criteria. Therefore, they must be replaced by producer associations that receive the status of a protective association starting in 2027.
The Lower Austrian producer association will also shape the designation of origin "Quality Wine Lower Austria" in the future. For this, the winegrowers' association intends to modernize and digitize its member administration.
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