Corks finally pop for Austrian wine 29 years after antifreeze scandal with Waitrose selling 53 per cent more than last year Austria's market almost collapsed completely after the 1985 scandal But UK is now one of the fastest-growing markets for big Austrian vineyards Number has increased from 1,000 to 1,600 in four years, The Times reported Popular: Grüner Veltliner is the most popular Austrian wine, accounting for 36 per cent of the nation's vineyards It is almost three decades since millions of bottles were tainted with engine coolant. Now, finally, the Austrian wine industry appears to be off the rack - with a huge boost in popularity at Waitrose. The upmarket supermarket chain recorded a 53 per cent rise in sales last year compared to the year before, after a steep rise in the number of vineyards. The Times reported the number of large-scale vineyards in Austria has increased from 1,000 five years ago to 1,600 in 2012, with wine now worth more than £115 million to the national economy. The news comes 29 years after millions of bottles of Austrian wine were tainted with diethylene glycol in one of the biggest food and drink scandals of the last century. Growers had added the sweet-tasting chemical, used to make antifreeze, in a desperate bid to make batches of cheap, unappealing wine more appetising. West Germany banned all Austrian wine completely and several people were arrested and fined over the scandal. In all, 36 million bottles were destroyed and had to be poured into the ovens of a cement plant as a cooling agent because they could not be emptied into the sewers. The scandal almost destroyed the Austrian wine market completely, with legitimate merchants unable to convince foreign buyers that their bottles would not be suspect. A year later, the amount of Austrian wine being exported had dropped by 90 per cent. However, the strict laws brought in after the scandal gave growers the chance to abandon the 'pile high, sell cheap' culture favoured before by many in Austria. Boost: Austrian wines have seen a leap in sales of 53 per cent year-on-year at Waitrose Waitrose wine buyer Cat Lomax told the Times the quality of wine emerging from the country has transformed. Willi Klinger, general manager of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board, told the newspaper demand from the UK was outstripping that of almost every other country. 'The increase did not come from the traditionally strong markets of Germany, Switzerland and the U.S., but from the former "problem children" like Scandinavia, the Beneleux countries, United Kingdom and Japan,' he said. Austrian white wines, grown from grapes along the banks of the River Danube, are said to go especially well with Thai and Japanese food.