Austria has perhaps the most stringent wine production and labeling regulations anywhere — the result of a scandal in 1985. Because sweet, late harvest wines are so prized and expensive, a small group of unscrupulous producers adulterated ordinary wines with diethylene glycol (a substance related to antifreeze) to sweeten them. They labeled them late harvest and tried to pass them off as the real thing.

The affair caused Austrian wine exports to plummet within the year to less than one-fifth of what they had been sending to other countries. The government stepped in, and new regulations were implemented to keep anything similar from happening again. Today, Austria is successfully exporting more of its wines than ever, both dry and sweet.

Austria and its neighbor, Germany, have much in common. Riesling has a home in Austria, though most of it is dry. Austria also ranks its wines according to grape ripeness levels at harvest, but Kabinett-level wines are placed in a lower quality category. The highest quality category, called Prädikatswein, contains these tiers (lowest to highest):

• Spatlese

• Auslese

• Beerenauslese

• Ausbruch

• Trockenbeerenauslese

Austria's most famous grape is the white Grüner Veltliner — a longtime favorite with Austrians and now making a big splash around the world. It produces wines that are typically dry, medium-bodied, and spicy. Red wines don't have as much success in Austria, but Blauer Zweigelt is the most popular, with Pinot Noir not far behind.