Austrian Wine: Grapes, Regions and the DAC System

Austrian wine is mostly white, led by Grüner Veltliner, with Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch as the main reds. Nearly all of it comes from the east of the country: Lower Austria along the Danube, Burgenland near the Hungarian border, Styria in the south and the city of Vienna. If you like crisp, food-friendly whites or lighter, juicy reds, Austria is worth a closer look, and its DAC labels make the style in the bottle easy to predict.

Austria at a glance

Austrian Wine, the country’s wine marketing board, publishes these figures (grape areas are its data to July 2024):

Fact	Figure
Vineyard area	44,210 hectares (about 109,245 acres)
White vs red	70% white (30,847 ha), 30% red (13,364 ha)
Generic wine-growing regions	Niederösterreich, Burgenland, Steiermark, plus Wien
Specific wine-growing regions	17, including Wien
DAC appellations	18

Austrian Wine says most vineyards are in the east because the climate is more favorable there, though some wine is made in every federal state. The vineyards of the other five states (Carinthia, Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg) are grouped as Bergland.

The grapes

The six most planted grapes in Austrian Wine’s variety table:

Grape	Color	Area	Share
Grüner Veltliner	White	14,296 ha	32%
Zweigelt	Red	5,940 ha	13%
Welschriesling	White	2,774 ha	6.3%
Blaufränkisch	Red	2,550 ha	5.8%
Riesling	White	2,025 ha	4.6%
Chardonnay	White	1,927 ha	4.4%

Grüner Veltliner

Austria’s signature white covers almost a third of the country’s vineyards. Austrian Wine says Weinviertel Grüner Veltliner has a marked spicy, peppery nose. Our Grüner Veltliner guide covers its taste, its regions and the Wachau style terms Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd.

Riesling, Welschriesling and the Pinots

Welschriesling is a different grape despite the name. Austrian Wine says fresh, elegant Welschriesling is made under the Eisenberg DAC. Pinot Blanc (Weissburgunder) and Chardonnay, called Morillon in Styria, grow in several regions; our Pinot Blanc guide has more on the grape.

Zweigelt

Zweigelt is Austria’s most widespread red grape. Austrian Wine says Dr. Fritz Zweigelt created it in 1922 at the viticulture school in Klosterneuburg by crossing St. Laurent and Blaufränkisch, and that it only gained recognition after World War II. It grows in every wine region. The board describes purple-red wines with strong tannins and morello cherry aromas when the grapes are fully ripe, in styles from young and unoaked to barrel-aged. Carnuntum and the area around Lake Neusiedl often make the best.

Blaufränkisch

Blaufränkisch is an old Central European grape, probably a natural cross of Sbulzina and Weißer Heunisch, documented in Austria since the 18th century. Germany calls it Lemberger (or Limberger) and Hungary Kékfrankos. Austrian Wine describes deep aromas of wild berries or cherries, powerful acidity and, in the best wines, dense structure and firm tannins that soften with age. It is the flagship red of Mittelburgenland, nicknamed “Blaufränkischland”, of Eisenberg and of Leithaberg.

In our view, Blaufränkisch is the Austrian red to try if you like Syrah or Cabernet Franc, and Zweigelt is the one for Pinot Noir or Beaujolais fans.

Where it grows

Region	Area	Known for
Niederösterreich (Lower Austria)	26,732 ha (66,056 acres)	Grüner Veltliner, Riesling; Wachau, Kamptal, Kremstal, Weinviertel
Burgenland	11,538 ha (28,511 acres)	Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, sweet wines
Steiermark (Styria)	5,109 ha (12,625 acres)	Sauvignon Blanc, Morillon, Schilcher rosé
Wien (Vienna)	588 ha (1,453 acres)	Wiener Gemischter Satz

Niederösterreich (Lower Austria)

Austria’s largest quality-wine region has eight specific regions, from the Wachau in the west to Carnuntum in the east. Austrian Wine divides it into three rough climate zones: the Weinviertel in the north, the Danube and its side valleys west of Vienna, and the warmer Pannonian south-east.

• Weinviertel. Austria’s largest specific region, at 13,841 hectares. Its peppery Grüner Veltliner was the first Austrian wine to gain DAC status, in 2003.
• Wachau. The narrow Danube valley between Melk and Krems, a World Heritage Site, with steep terraces for Grüner Veltliner and Riesling. Hand harvesting is compulsory for Wachau DAC.
• Kamptal and Kremstal. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling are the DAC grapes in both; Kamptal DAC also allows Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris.
• Wagram (2,450 ha) and Traisental (855 ha). Wagram’s loess terraces north of the Danube make some of Austria’s greatest Grüner Veltliner, says Austrian Wine, and the region includes Klosterneuburg, home of what the board calls the world’s oldest viticulture school (founded 1860). Traisental’s DAC covers spicy, mineral Grüner Veltliner and Riesling.
• Carnuntum (822 ha). Reds from Zweigelt and Blaufränkisch, plus whites from Grüner Veltliner, Chardonnay and Pinot Blanc.
• Thermenregion (1,851 ha). Austria’s newest DAC, from the 2023 vintage, known for the local white grapes Zierfandler and Rotgipfler and for St. Laurent and Pinot Noir reds.

Burgenland

Austria’s easternmost state has a hot, continental Pannonian climate. Austrian Wine credits it with the country’s most opulent reds, complex whites and extraordinarily fine sweet wines.

• Neusiedlersee (6,020 ha), east of Lake Neusiedl, makes fruity Zweigelt reds under its DAC. Its Seewinkel area, with many small lakes and high humidity, regularly gets noble rot, the beneficial mold behind Beerenauslese and Trockenbeerenauslese sweet wines.
• Leithaberg (2,995 ha), on the lake’s western shore, makes whites from Pinot Blanc, Chardonnay, Neuburger and Grüner Veltliner on limestone and slate, plus mineral Blaufränkisch.
• Ruster Ausbruch DAC protects the sweet wine of the town of Rust, a Trockenbeerenauslese.
• Mittelburgenland (2,036 ha), Eisenberg (511 ha) and Rosalia (239 ha) focus on Blaufränkisch, with Zweigelt also important in Rosalia.

Steiermark (Styria)

Styria’s three regions sit in the south of the state, with Südsteiermark’s steep slopes along the border with Slovenia, and all three became DACs in 2018: Südsteiermark, Vulkanland Steiermark and Weststeiermark. Austrian Wine calls Sauvignon Blanc the standout wine of Südsteiermark, while Vulkanland’s volcanic soils give Welschriesling, Pinot Blanc, Morillon and Sauvignon Blanc, with Traminer a specialty around Klöch. In Weststeiermark, about 60% of the vineyards are Blauer Wildbacher, used for Schilcher, a rare rosé with lively acidity. Hand harvesting is compulsory for all Styrian DACs. Fans of crisp Sauvignon Blanc can compare these with the styles in our Sauvignon Blanc guide.

Wien (Vienna)

Austrian Wine stresses that Vienna’s vineyards are a real part of the city’s economy, not a tourist sideshow, and a Viennese state law requires existing vineyards to stay in cultivation. Its specialty is Wiener Gemischter Satz, a field blend. Under the DAC rules, at least three white varieties must be planted together in one Vienna vineyard and harvested and fermented together; the largest variety may not exceed 50% and the third-largest must make up at least 10%. Austrian Wine says about 240 hectares are planted for it. The wine is a fixture of the Heurige, Vienna’s wine taverns, a tradition added to Austria’s UNESCO intangible cultural heritage list in 2019.

How to read the label

• DAC. “Districtus Austriae Controllatus” after a region name (for example “Kamptal DAC”) means the wine shows that region’s typical style. Each DAC sets its own grapes and rules, which can cover harvesting, alcohol, residual sugar, aging and release dates.
• Federal state names. A quality wine from a DAC region that doesn’t follow its DAC rules carries the wider state name instead, such as “Niederösterreich” or “Steiermark”.
• Gebietswein, Ortswein, Riedenwein. Many DACs use three tiers: regional wine, village wine and single-vineyard wine. Ried means a named vineyard.
• Reserve. Allowed only where a DAC’s rules permit it, usually for fuller wines released later.
• The red-white-red banderole. Every bottle of Austrian Qualitätswein carries a red and white band on the capsule showing the producer’s number. Austrian Wine says each wine has passed a chemical analysis and a sensory check by trained tasters.

Food pairing

Austrian Wine notes that Austrian cooking pairs the wine with how a dish is prepared, the sauce and the sides more than with the meat itself.

Dish	Wine to try (Austrian Wine)
Wiener Schnitzel and other breaded, fried dishes	Grüner Veltliner, Pinot Blanc, Gemischter Satz
Styrian fried chicken (Backhendl)	Schilcher rosé or off-dry Traminer
Boiled beef with apple-horseradish sauce	Rich Grüner Veltliner or Pinot Blanc; a lightly chilled Zweigelt for red
Roast beef, duck, goose, lamb	Elegant Zweigelt, mature Blaufränkisch, aged whites
Roast chicken	Riesling or Grüner Veltliner
Goulash	Rich Grüner Veltliner or fruity Zweigelt
Szegediner Krautfleisch (a cabbage and meat stew)	Blaufränkisch

Our pick: if you’re cooking anything breaded and fried at home, a Grüner Veltliner is the easy answer, and a slightly chilled Zweigelt is the red we’d bring to a barbecue.

Good-value bottles to try

We don’t name specific bottles here yet. Our picks follow our rating method: every wine needs a published critic score for a named vintage and a US shelf price checked at two or more retailers, and we haven’t completed that check for an Austrian wine.

In our view, the best places to start are a Weinviertel DAC Grüner Veltliner for white and a Zweigelt from Burgenland or Carnuntum for red.

How to serve it

We’d serve crisp whites such as Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Styrian Sauvignon Blanc well chilled, and give richer Reserve or single-vineyard whites a few minutes out of the fridge. Austrian Wine suggests serving Zweigelt slightly chilled with boiled beef, and in our view the same goes for most young Zweigelt. Save the cellar for Blaufränkisch, which Austrian Wine says has very good aging potential in its denser versions, and for the sweet wines of Burgenland.