(Wineparty Investigations)
(Please also read the current addition at the end of the text)
Yesterday we reported on a possible scandal within the Tyrolean Sommeliers’ Association. We have photographs, WhatsApp logs and PDF documents relating to this – all of them indications that allow for the interpretation that insider knowledge was distributed in advance of the national championship. Barely had the report gone online when an avalanche descended upon us.
We were inundated with interventions: phone calls, messages, outraged reactions – from people outside the Tyrolean Presidency, which had been asked for a statement (the Tyrolean association sent the national body, the Sommelier Union in Vienna, out in front and did not answer our emails requesting a statement). There were also threats of legal action – not because of the content, but over trivialities. Seriously: it was complained that we had shown the logo of the Tyrolean Sommeliers’ Association. As if a little image were the problem – rather than the allegations that are on the table.
We have therefore after a morning consultation with a media lawyer in Berlin, agreed on a clear course of action. Firstly: The documents in our possession will be re-examined by a data forensics expert. The aim is to establish their authenticity beyond doubt. In fact, this is unnecessary, because the criteria for publication have already been met. But we want to work in a watertight manner.
Secondly: Following this forensic examination, those people who appear by name in the WhatsApp chats will be confronted with the findings. No one should be able to say that they were ignored or not given a hearing. Thirdly: An independent law firm – external and unbiased – will provide a legal assessment of the chats. We do not want a gut reaction, but a robust analysis.
And one more thing: Our informant is not the person whom the Tyrolean association immediately suspected. The rapid search for a scapegoat may serve internal factional struggles, but it can also lead one astray.
The Austrian Sommelier Union has also pointed out to us that Tyrol and the association are the victims of a campaign by a third party; a person who is engaged in an open feud with the Tyrolean association. Our response to this is as follows: Firstly the war within the Tyrolean association is not the subject of our investigation – but it is now! Secondly the Tyroleans are known for responding to media reports with grotesque denials. Let us remember: after the scandal surrounding the excessive ski-resort parties during Covid, they seriously proclaimed that, despite high infection rates, they had “done everything right”. A sentence that amused Austria at the time and left the rest of the world shaking its head – and which to this day is regarded as a symbol of Tyrolean denial of reality.
We will not be infected by this style. We investigate, we check, we disclose.
Yesterday, the outcry. Today, the forensics. Monday, the continuation. And then into the second round. Perhaps the chairman of the Tyrolean association will also respond this time. But what we do not want to hear from him then is “done everything right”.
Addition 11:15am: the chairman of the Tyrolean association has responded. During the telephone conversation, we learned about events in Tyrol that have the proportions of a Greek tragedy – and what is happening there right now is actually a human tragedy as well. More on Monday).