(Editorial team, Reuters)
There are stories that sound so unlikely that one would really have to invent them – if it were not for the reality that delivers them to us. The latest is this: of all things, Grüner Veltliners from the Kamptal helped to throw Donald Trump's tariff policy off balance.
As reported today in the Austrian Standard it was a small US importer who disrupted the great political game. Victor Schwartz, a New York trader, buys Grüner Veltliner in Lower Austria, among other things. His company, Vos Selections, was the lead plaintiff in proceedings against Donald Trump. The aim: to overturn the new import tariffs that Trump wanted to impose on the Europeans.
The fact that the plaintiff happens to have Veltliner in his portfolio is not without irony. Godfried Steinschaden, a winemaker from Engabrunn, said to the Standard: „I didn't even know that it was Victor. But actually, that suits him.“A sentence like a shrug – and yet it contains the whole joke of this story: one man, one wine, one lawsuit against the world's most powerful regime; successful, at least for now.
The scale should not be underestimated. Trump had punitive tariffs of up to 200 per cent in mind at one point. As reported in the Standard it would have been “the end” for exports. Instead, they ended up at 15 per cent – bad enough, but manageable. With foresight, Steinschaden sent a large proportion of his annual volume across the Atlantic early. The tariffs were shared with the importers. But that would be more difficult for small traders such as Schwartz, Schwartz says. And that is precisely why he sued.
And won. First in a US federal court, then in a court of appeal. The case is now before the Supreme Court. But already, writes the Standard, “the ruling is likely to have far-reaching consequences – including for Austria.”
Suddenly, this man from New York who imports Grüner Veltliner is a figure in global politics. “Schwartz has by now become something of a celebrity,” it says in the Standard. He goes from one interview to the next and has already appeared on the New York Times podcast.
And here begins the punchline: it was not the great houses in Bordeaux or Burgundy, nor the Champagne barons or the Italian lobbies, that put Trump in his place. It was a trader with a heart for Austria. A trader who knew that Grüner Veltliner in the US had become not merely a niche product, but a necessity. Without Veltliner, no seafood pairing, no light white for summer cuisine, no alternative to Chardonnay.
One might say: Trump's tariffs have – for the time being, though sadly certainly not for good – failed in the face of the reality of a wine that he probably cannot even spell.
And that is a lesson. Wine is not merely a pleasure; at times, it is also politics. It tells not only stories of terroir and climate, but also writes chapters in the annals of economic wars. The fact that Austria was allowed to play a small leading role in them is not due to the great power of Vienna or Brussels, but to a man in New York – and to a grape variety that, just one generation ago, was mocked as a provincial joke.
Today, however, Grüner Veltliner is an export product, a cult bottle and, as we can see, a political instrument. As reported in the Standard the US now accounts for 8.5 per cent of Austrian export revenues – and they continue to grow, while other markets stagnate.
This is no coincidence. It is the quiet revolution of a grape variety. And perhaps that is exactly what we should celebrate for a moment: that a glass of Veltliner can wield more power than Trump's Twitter tirades. For now. And sadly, probably only briefly in reality.