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What will the 2024 sekt vintage be like?
Characterised for being “elegant and fresh”, 2024 is expected to be a “promising” vintage for Austria’s hero sparkling wine.
Despite the early start to the vegetation period and generally higher temperatures, fans of Austrian sekt can look forward to an elegant and fresh character, according to the Austrian Sekt Committee.
Producers say this year was largely synonymous with the need for good time management skills and a general adaption to changing weather conditions, with factors such as canopy management and soil cultivation playing a key role.
“Overall, we can expect a promising vintage for sekt base wine, which yielded pretty much optimal analytical values at harvest,” reported Michael Malat, a winemaker and head of the Marketing Committee of the Austrian Sekt Committee.
With the introduction of the highest Austrian sparkling wine category Sekt Austria (PDO) in 2015, the quality of the wines has continued to rise among the three permitted categories, which as of February 2022 are: Sekt Austria (PDO), Sekt Austria Reserve (PDO) and Sekt Austria Grosse Reserve (PDO).
Requirements for wines made underneath the entry-level Sekt Austria (PDO) designation include using only grapes harvested within a single state, and using varieties approved for the production of Qualitätswein. Wines must undergo at least nine months of maturation on the lees when the wine is bottle fermented, or at least six months when the sekt is fermented in tanks.
Sekt Reserve is proving an increasingly strong competitor in the traditional method arena.
Big offensive
The news of the 2024 harvest quality follows a “big offensive” launched by the PDO to challenge international fizz competitors on the global stage.
Anika Riegler, team leader for international markets at the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, told the drinks business in 2022 that the time was right to promote the country’s sparkling wine more vigorously in export markets. “I think we did not really focus on Sekt in the past, we just took it with us,” she remarked. “We need to do a big offensive to really bring it into people’s minds.”
However, the total value of all Austrian sparkling wine exports was down -25.7% in 2023 compared with 2022, according to the latest Austrian Wine Statistics Report. This may be attributable to an overall drop in total exports of all styles of Austrian wine (down 4.3% year on year), following a pronounced drop in bulk wine exports as the country focuses on quality wines.
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