Fewer eighths

Wine barrels will be empty earlier this year

Sad news for wine lovers: there is less Lower Austrian grape juice.(Bild: Visions-AD – stock.adobe.com)

Fans of a good glass of wine from Lower Austria will have to be brave: Very little grape juice is maturing in the barrels this year. What is to blame for the 23 percent drop?

After the shock, the good news first: the quality of the new vintage is very satisfactory, as Johann Grassl emphasizes. But of course the head of the viticulture department at the Lower Austrian Chamber of Agriculture also has to face up to the less positive facts. 1.18 million hectoliters of grape juice represent a whopping 23 percent drop compared to the previous year.

We do not have a poor wine harvest, but a small one. We are very satisfied with the quality.

DI Johann Grassl, NÖ Landwirtschaftskammer

Bild: LK NOE/Eva Posch

Frost damage on a small scale
Last spring, frost and hail already affected the vines. "Although the damage was small-scale, some winegrowers suffered losses of up to 60 percent," summarizes Grassl. However, the devastating floods are not to blame for the wine misery. "Most of the harvest had been harvested by then," explains Grassl. Rather, the exact opposite of the flood was the main cause of the poor wine harvest: drought.

It wasn't just dust in the fields, but also in the vineyards.(Bild: Sepp Pail)

Little rainfall
And there are hardly any countermeasures that can be implemented in the short term against the lack of rainfall. "It would be helpful for winegrowers if bureaucratic hurdles to artificial irrigation were removed," appeals the viticulture expert. It takes time to switch to new varieties that tolerate drought better. "In arable farming, you can change over every year, but that's not possible in viticulture," explains Grassl. He is convinced: "There will be good years again!"