Mountain country Austria

The vineyards of the Austrian province belong (besides Upper Austria, Salzburg, Tyrol and Vorarlberg) to the smallest wine growing region in the Bergland. This designation applies to regional wines, the quality wines may be marketed under the designation "CarinthianWine Region". Wine-growing in Carinthia is first mentioned in documents in the year 822. It developed around the ecclesiastical monasteries of Millstatt, Ossiach, Gurk, St. Georgen am Längsee, Viktring, Griffen, St. Paul as well as around the bishop's see of St. Andrä and Wolfsberg. It reached its greatest expansion in the 16th century with several hundred hectares. Due to the beer, which developed as a popular drink, warlike turmoil, high taxes, phylloxera and mildew, the village declined.

At the beginning of the 1990s, a new start was made for winegrowing in Carinthia. The association "Vinum Carinthiae", founded in 1993, aims to reintroduce and spread viticulture in Carinthia on a larger scale as a landscape-designing element to enrich the cultural landscape. In 2003 the Carinthian Winegrowers' Association was founded. Soil analyses have shown that quality viticulture is possible throughout Carinthia. The centres of Carinthian viticulture are located in the district of St. Veit with the Längsee and around the castle Hochosterwitz, in the Lavanttal, in the area of Feldkirchen and around the city of Klagenfurt, such as the lake meadow at the Wörthersee.

Within the framework of an EU project started in 2005, the fruit growing experimental station in St. Andrä im Lavanttal scientifically determined which grape varieties are suitable in Carinthia. In 2018, the area under vines covered 170 hectares, which means a fivefold increase in 15 years. They are mainly planted with the white wine varieties Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc,Pinot Blanc, Traminer and Riesling, the rest with the red wine varieties Zweigelt andPinot Noir. There are about 90 wineries. These include Gartner (St. Andrä), Holzfeind (Kötschach-Mauthen), Janko (St. Paul), Kegley (Karnburg), Prochazka (Feldkirchen), Pulsinger (Wolfsberg), Serschen (Klagenfurt) and Unterkofler (Klagenfurt).

Picture: © ÖWM - Carinthian winegrowers' association