Abbreviation for "Districtus Austriae Controllatus", the Austrian designation for an area-typical and origin-controlled quality wine, which corresponds analogously to the French Appellation d'Origine Protégée (AOP). A reorganisation of the quality system in Austria in this respect was established in the 1990s by representatives of the winegrowers' association, the wine trade, ÖWM (wine marketing service company) and the Ministry of Agriculture. The aim of these efforts was and is to emphasise the distinctiveness of Austrian wine and to strengthen its identity in order to hold its own against increasing competition from Europe and overseas. Similar to France, Italy and Spain, the origin is thus given greater consideration or brought to the fore. To illustrate the motivation, the difference between "Romanesque" and "Germanic" wine law should be made clear.
Romanic and Germanic wine law
While in Germany and Austria the must weight and the grape variety are in the foreground with regard to quality, Romance wine law characterises wines according to their origin. In Austria, a consumer usually names a variety when ordering, for example Grüner Veltliner, Zweigelt or Blaufränkisch. However, this does not provide any information about the origin; the wine can come from any wine-growing region in Lower Austria, Burgenland or Styria. The differences in taste can then be relatively large, mainly due to different soil conditions. On the other hand, a consumer from a Romance country will usually not name a grape variety but a region such as Alentejo, Barolo, Beaujolais, Brunello di Montalcino, Chablis, Châteauneuf-du-Pape, Chianti, Rioja or Vinho Verde. In France in particular, the indication of a vineyard such as Château Cheval Blanc, Château Latour, Château Margaux, Château Mouton-Rothschild or Château d'Yquem also traditionally corresponds to a narrower designation of origin.
The wine-growing region (and in France partly also the vineyard) thus implicitly refer to a very specific type of wine. If you buy a Chablis, for example, you simply know that it is a dry French white wine made from a single variety of Chardonnay. Among other things, minimum alcohol content and maximum yield are also defined. And if it is one of the seven Grand Cru vineyards (privileged Chablis sub-areas), whose name is also listed on the label, then even stricter specifications apply. Likewise, in the case of a Rioja it is clear that it is a Spanish red wine made from Tempranillo, and in the case of a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano it is an Italian red wine made from Sangiovese. For all three wines, however, the grape varieties are not necessarily mentioned on the bottle label.
There is, however, a precise description of the respective production regulations according to which the wines are tested sensorially by tasting and analytically by measuring methods before they may be marketed. Since in the Romance system wines are defined according to their origins, the origin corresponds to a wine...
