With the debut of the Sekt Austria PDO, the Austrian Wine Marketing Board has announced a change in the way that the country’s sparkling wines will be classified and labeled. Prior to the change, these wines were labeled using the term Sekt gU—an initialism referring to the term geschützte Ursprungsbezeichnung. This change (announced on February 2, 2022 and effective immediately) is designed to draw attention to the fact that these wines—easily recognizable by the red-and-white striped banderole on the capsule—are produced using 100% Austrian grapes.
Three tiers of quality wine—including Reserve and Grosse Reserve—will be produced under the Sekt Austria PDO. Wine labeled under the Sekt Austria PDO designation may be made using any approved sparkling wine production method (including the tank method/méthode Charmat or transfer method); Reserve and Grosse Reserve wines must undergo a second fermentation and less aging in the bottle (according to the traditional method/méthode traditionelle of sparkling wine production).
Photo of Austria’s Thermenregion by Anna Stöcher ©AWMB
Further details of these tiers are as follows:
- Sekt Austria PDO:
- Grapes must be harvested from a single (federal) state
- Any approved sparkling wine production method may be used
- Minimum 9 months aging on the lees
- Sekt Austria Reserve PDO:
- Grapes must be harvested from a single (federal) state
- Grapes must be hand harvested
- Must be produced using the traditional method
- Minimum 18 months aging on the lees
- Sekt Austria Grosse Reserve PDO:
- Grapes must be harvested from a single municipality
- Grapes must be hand harvested
- Must be produced using the traditional method
- Minimum 36 months aging on the lees
- Wines may be labeled with a single vineyard as the designation of origin
Austrian Sekt PDO may be produced using any of the 40 grapes allowed for use in the production of Qualitätswein in Austria and must contain at least 3.5 atm of pressure. Click here for a list of The-Austria-40-wine-grapes-approved-for-use-in-Austria.
Note: Austria will continue to allow the production of Sekt without a geographical indication; such wines may be labeled with the term Austrian Sekt or Austrian Qualitätsschaumwein—without the notation of PDO.
As with all such updates, this change will need to wind its way through EU authorization; however, as the Austrian government has granted their approval, the changes will be in force (as scheduled) with the release of the wines of the 2021 vintage. If the EU fails to approve the amendment, the regulation will be rescinded (although this is quite unlikely to happen).
References/for more information:
- Austrian Wine Marketing Board/Sekt
- Sekt Austria PDO Classification Pyramid (pdf)
- Collective Agreement – Updates to Austrian Wine Law Feb 2022
Post authored by Jane A. Nickles…your blog administrator: jnickles@societyofwineeducators.org