A winegrowers' association or regional brand in the Wachau winegrowing region(Lower Austria) for dry quality white wines typical of their origin. It was founded in 1983 by the four Wachau winegrowing pioneers Franz Hirtzberger senior (1922-2007), Josef Jamek, Franz Prager and Willi Schwengler as directors of the Wachau winegrowers' cooperative (today Domäne Wachau). The aim and purpose was to create an area-protected brand, which was directed against the then widespread practice of buying wines from other Lower Austrian wine-growing regions and marketing them as Wachau wines. The name was used by the nobleman Leuthold I von Kuenring (1243-1313), who resided at his castle in Dürnstein, to designate the core of his possessions, which corresponded to today's Wachau. He is included on the label, but instead of a sword he carries a wine goblet in his right hand. The chairman was Franz Hirtzberger Jr. for 24 years, his successor since 2012 is Emmerich Knoll.
The members declare bindingly to serve the Wachau wine culture and to carry exclusively wines from the Wachau. Any purchase of wine and grapes from other wine-growing regions is prohibited, otherwise the wineries will be excluded from the association. Vinea Wachau currently has around two hundred members and controls over 85% of the vineyards in the Wachau. Since the 2023 vintage, all wineries must work or be certified according to the guidelines of the Sustainable Austria Quality Seal. The white quality wine grape varieties native to the Wachau can be used for wine production. These are mainly Riesling, Grüner Veltliner, Neuburger and the Pinot varieties Chardonnay, Grauburgunder (Pinot Gris) and Weißburgunder (Pinot Blanc). The three quality categories are only permitted for member wineries. They bear the designations Steinfeder (introduced in 1984), as well as Federspiel and Smaragd (a few years later). All three must be dry (max. 9 g/l residual sugar), unimproved quality wines from the Wachau.
The wineries, provided they produce quality wines in the categories "Steinfeder", "Federspiel" or "Smaragd", have been subject to the "Codex Wachau" since May 2006. The main six pillars are:
The wine comes exclusively from the Wachau growing region, is produced in the categories Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd and must be bottled in the growing region.
No enrichment of any kind (chaptalisation) is carried out. The ripening potential given by nature and the vintage and the resulting natural sugar content of the grapes are solely and exclusively decisive for the quality in the glass. This is the basis for the categorisation of Wachau wines.
Without exception, no concentration of any kind is used. The natural composition of grapes, grape must and wine may not be altered by technical processes (vacuum distillation, reverse osmosis, cryoextraction, etc.).
There is guaranteed to be no aromatisation. This means that there is no falsification of the natural aroma structure; neither barrique use, wood chips nor oenological tannins (tannin powder) are permitted.
There is guaranteed no fractionation (Spinning Cone Column). The splitting of the wine into its individual components and the arbitrary reassembling was permitted by the EU for wines from America on the EU market. The Wachau winegrowers consider this technique a betrayal of nature and will of course not make use of it.
In the categories Steinfeder, Federspiel and Smaragd, the Vinea winegrowers renounce many of the possibilities of modern wine-making, i.e. manipulations against nature.
Logos: Vinea Wachau
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Roman Horvath MW
Domäne Wachau (Wachau)