Austria's Constitutional Court strikes down the wine-label rule on 'Erste Lage' vineyards

27 October 2026

The Verfassungsgerichtshof (VfGH), Austria's Constitutional Court, has repealed Paragraph 1a of the Weinbezeichnungsverordnung (WeinBVO) as unlawful. The decision, in cases G 99/2024 and V 56/2024, was announced on 15 October 2026 after an application by several Austrian winegrowers. The provision reserved the terms 'Erste Lage' and 'Grosse Lage' for DAC wines and required the Nationales Weinkomitee, an industry body with its own legal personality, to classify vineyard sites (Rieden) before the minister designated them by regulation. The Court held that the Weingesetz 2009 gave no statutory basis for handing such sovereign power to the committee, breaching the legality principle in Article 18 paragraph 2 of the Bundes-Verfassungsgesetz (B-VG), and that the committee's freedom from ministerial direction and supervision breached Article 20 paragraph 1 B-VG. The repeal takes effect the day after the decision is published in the Bundesgesetzblatt.