Austria

All Alcohol Types

Beer

11.4

6.2

3.6

1.6

0.0

Wine

Spirits

Other Beverages

Austrians are remarkably loyal to their own wines. There is a legend: during the wine scandal that erupted in the country in the 1980s—when unscrupulous producers added diethylene glycol to wines, a substance mimicking the sweetness and body of more southern wines—Austrians did not turn their backs on local winemaking even after the fraud was exposed. It is said they simply began choosing more expensive and reliable wines.

It was precisely after this crisis that Austria’s wine legislation underwent a radical transformation: evolving from one of the most lenient in Europe to the most strictly regulated and controlled. Today, a repetition of that 1980s scenario is virtually impossible.