Ask Decanter

Each month our experts answer your burning wine questions. Email your questions to editor@decanter.com

WHAT’S CUSTOM CRUSH?

I’ve recently heard more about custom crush wineries. What exactly are they?

John McGlynn, by email

Stacy Slinkard, US-based Decanter contributor, replies: Custom crush facilities are bonded wineries that provide winemaking equipment and consulting services, enabling clients to produce wine on site. Commercial brands often bring in their own fruit and winemakers, making all of the vinification decisions themselves, from crushing the grapes to bottling.

Private clients may need more technical input, and tend to rely on custom crush facilities to assist in everything from sourcing fruit to winemaking and packaging with the in-house winemaking team.

There are numerous benefits to making wine this way. Primarily, the capital investment needed to start a wine project is significantly less, but users also have access to additional winemaking staff, and many facilities offer on-site tasting rooms where clients can showcase their wines directly to consumers and distributors. For more, read Stacy’s feature on the custom crush winery scene in California, and the top wines to buy, on decanter.com/premium

AUSTRIAN WINE LABELS

I’d like to try some good Austrian dry wines but I find the labels difficult to understand sometimes. What should I look out for?

Catherine Douglas, by email Decanter contributing editor

Stephen Brook replies: Austrian wine labels will always identify the producer, sometimes with the prefix Weingut (‘wine estate’), the grape variety and the region. The word ‘cuvée’ generally indicates a blend of varieties, more common among red wines than white.

A wine’s origin may be designated by region (eg, Kamptal), village (Langenlois), or the name of a single vineyard. Individual vineyards are now preceded by the word Ried, the Austrian word for a single site. Sometimes, but not always, a vineyard name is preceded by a village name, as in Kammerner Lamm.

On some labels the words Erste 1ÖTW) Lage (or the logo appear, indicating a ‘first growth’. This has no official status, but is a private classification restricted to Lower Austria and recently expanded to include the mostly red-wine region of Carnuntum. Despite its lack of official recognition, the classification is widely respected.

In contrast, the DAC system is nationwide and official, allying specific varieties to specific regions. Thus Weinviertel DAC indicates a Grüner Veltliner from that region, while Eisenberg DAC identifies a Blaufränkisch from the region formerly known as Südburgenland. There is also a reserve category for wines with higher alcohol and some wood ageing. Overall, it has become too complicated for most consumers to digest, and not all producers follow the system. Like the French AOP, the DAC system doesn’t necessarily imply a wine of high quality.

However, the Wachau region has its own hierarchy, created by the leading growers’ association Vinea Wachau. This three-tier system is based on grape ripeness. The lowest category, Steinfeder, is vanishing because of global warming, leaving Federspiel and the full-bodied Smaragd, which generally indicates a powerful wine of 13% alcohol or more. This internal system is now being amalgamated with the DAC system, but it’s not yet clear how this will pan out on wine labels.