The Wineparty
(Claude Auguste, Photo: Vinea Wachau) I still remember my first Knoll wines precisely. It was in the 1990s; I was young and eager to learn, a South Tyrolean in Vienna studying “law” and perhaps a little too ambitious when it came to my young wine knowledge. Back then, when Austrian wine was still struggling for its international reputation, this bottle suddenly stood Read the full article…
(Manfred Klimek) In Eastern Europe, the Hungarian writer Imre Kertész explained to me more than thirty years ago in an interview in Budapest, communism after 1950 had despised wine culture as a bourgeois legacy and held winegrowing in low esteem (unless it was good for export revenues). By contrast, wine drinking in the small, remaining bourgeois milieu was elevated, Read the full article…
(Wineparty Investigative) There is no longer a dispute raging in the Tyrolean Sommelier Association, but a war. A war being waged personally: mercilessly, but without showing its face – and one that is now taking a heavy toll on long-serving chairman Norbert Waldnig not only as an office-holder, but as a person, as we ourselves learned in a deeply moving telephone conversation. With Waldnig, it is immediately apparent: Read the full article…
(This text previously appeared in WELT am SONNTAG; the announced Tyrol text is with our media lawyer, who does not yet want to release it. It will come tomorrow) Osterreicher (me) meets Östreicher: winemakers Kerstin and Richard Östreicher in Sommerach am Main. Layer upon layer, the vines here have reached into the earth for centuries and drawn up water and Read the full article…
(Wineparty Investigative) (Please also read the current addition at the end of the text) Yesterday we reported on a possible scandal in the Tyrolean Sommelier Association. We have photographs, WhatsApp transcripts and PDF documents – all of them indications that allow for the interpretation that insider knowledge was distributed in advance at the national championships. Hardly had the report gone online when an avalanche broke over Read the full article…
(Wineparty Investigative) Wineparty received a letter from an anonymous source accusing the Tyrolean Sommelier Association of strange behaviour (cronyism). As we know, the Tyrolean Sommelier Association is by far the most powerful in Austria. An investigation by Wineparty has found that the aforementioned complaint does indeed exist – and that the preliminary proceedings concerning it were [conducted] by the Innsbruck Public Prosecutor's Office Read the full article…
His death came as a surprise and was also a slap in the face for the Kremstal wine scene – back then, in 2018, when Walter Buchegger died. At fifty. After breakfast. In the middle of his work. He, the storming one, the one who kept moving things forward, who drew the conclusion from the region's stagnation in the late 1990s: to make modern wines and thus also Read the full article…
(Editorial, Reuters) There are stories that sound so unlikely that one would really have to invent them – were it not for the reality that provides them for us. The latest is this: Grüner Veltliners from the Kamptal of all places helped to throw Donald Trump's tariff policy off balance. As reported in Austria's Standard today, it was a small US importer, Read the full article…
(Editorial) Norah Jones? When the name of the second-most prominent singer of the late 1990s is mentioned today (the most prominent, incidentally, was Amy Winehouse), most people remember her fleeting film kiss with Jude Law less than her music. She sang her biggest hit almost 25 years ago – Don't Know Why. Does anyone still remember that? Read the full article…
In the photo by Rachel Wirth: Daniel Aßmuth, a winemaker who failed despite excellent work (by Claude Auguste) “Yesterday” – what a convenient word when one does not want to accept an uncomfortable observation. I admit it: Yes, I do not write to the rhythm of TikTok seconds. But that is because wine itself does not live to the rhythm of the second. Read the full article…
JOIN THE PARTY
We report independently and objectively on winegrowers, wine producers and wine businesses in the Friendship Connection. If we like your story, we will write it here together – and you will become our author.
When activated, your DRINK access will be created automatically as well. In DRINK, you will then use the normal login with the same login details.