Grüner veltliner is the great Austrian grape that has become for Austria what riesling is for Germany, malbec for Argentina and carmenère for Chile.
Now, however, many growers are worried, among them Lenz Moser. The area planted with grüner veltliner has fallen in recent years, from 20 000 hectares to 13 500 hectares today. Instead, black grapes have been planted.
However, plantings of grüner veltliner in other countries, mainly in New Zealand and the United States, have increased. Lenz Moser encourages his wine producing colleagues to start planting gruner veltliner again. Otherwise he fears that other countries will take over the market. Read more on Drinks Business.
Wine is subject to fashion and trends as everything else and the red wines from Austria have had a big boost in recent years. So maybe it has been the right thing to plant black grapes. Especially since Austria also has its own, very interesting black grapes, like zweigelt and st. laurent. Moreover, a country may be known for a grape variety even though that variety is not the most planted. Look at Chile, known for its carmenère which accounts for only 8% of the total plantations!
