The Wineparty - Page 7

22 April 26 / wineparty

Not a mouthful of wine! Is the system of wine fairs and large tastings fair to all wines?

(Manfred Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) Every year, tradition returns: large tastings, organised by associations, regions or organisations such as the VDP, take place in grand halls, perfectly lit, precisely timed, sustained by an invariably friendly atmosphere. Winemakers, traders, journalists – everyone is there, everyone is in a good mood, everyone is ready to taste their way through an impressive Read the full article…

21 April 26 / wineparty

Revisited: Ornellaia. Does this brand live up to what it promises?

(Manfred Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) Wines that we regularly drink and assess. Ornellaia is such a case for me. A wine with which I have never had a truly relaxed relationship. Too expensive, too much driven by the market, too much a symbol of those years in which the so-called Super Tuscans were more than just great Read the full article…

Die WHO lügt! Ein ungewöhlich harter Artikel über die Empfehlungen der Gesundheitsorganisation.

20 April 26 / wineparty

The WHO is lying! An unusually tough article about the health organisation’s recommendations.

(Editorial team) It is a moment rarely experienced in wine journalism, or journalism in general. A moment when a publication, on the subject of wine, does not taste, recommend or enthuse – but attacks. And attacks head-on. On 14 April, the magazine Cicero did exactly that. In an article about the WHO’s anti-alcohol strategy, a Read the full article…

17 April 26 / wineparty

Best of Lake Constance: the WELT am SONNTAG column from last Sunday

(Manfed Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) The Lake Constance region is not a classic German wine-growing area, but a geological and climatic promise of the future that is now beginning to tell its story – because of climate change. Shaped by glaciers that retreated and left behind a landscape of moraines and heavy, often rich soils, this area, widely unknown in Germany as a wine-growing region, unfortunately appears Read the full article…

15 April 26 / wineparty

In summary: Who actually is this Alois Lageder?

(Manfred Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) In South Tyrol, Alois Lageder is a man known outside the world of wine too, as a socio-political figure of many years’ standing. South Tyrol, a region already caught between ethnic groups and circumstances, found someone important in Lageder early on who did not understand these in-between spaces as a problem, but as an opportunity. I have Alois Lageder Read the full article…

14 April 26 / wineparty

Four white wines that were popular 50 years ago. What became of the top whites of the 1970s?

(Claude Auguste / animated pic: runwayml) There was once a time when Europe, in fact the whole world, knew pretty much exactly what it wanted to drink. Not in the sense of “discovery” or “terroir discourse”, but quite practically: What is on the list, what do people know, what do they order without thinking. White wine was not a Read the full article…

13 April 26 / wineparty

Hungary? What is coming after Orbán? The I-Phone interview with wine expert Lenz Moser V, who works in Tokaj

(Manfred Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) Podcasts: that is for the rich. The poor, chronically underfunded Wineparty can only afford IPhone interviews that sound bad. But they do have substance, instead of waffle. Lenz Moser V, involved in several projects in Tokaj, tells us in 20 fascinating minutes how things work at the Hungarian state-owned company Grand Tokaj, why Read the full article…

10 April 26 / wineparty

A study. Not a wine study. But a study that provides arguments in favour of wine. From a completely different angle

(Editorial team / animated pic: runwayml / study: Federal Institute for Population Research (BiB) in cooperation with foreign institutes of the same kind, 2025/26) Maps like the one above sometimes tell us more than entire studies. At first glance, it reduces Europe to colours – red, blue, and a few undecided transitions in between. But behind these colours lies one of the Read the full article…

9 April 26 / wineparty

Hungary before the fateful election (1): Women’s power in Tokaj

(Manfred Klimek / animated pic: runwayml) Hungary is electing a new parliament on Sunday. For the first time in years, pollsters and political scientists believe the opposition could replace Viktor Orbán’s Fidez government. Before I take a look tomorrow at Fidez’s political influence on winegrowing – which I also witnessed myself – today we go back to 2023, Read the full article…

8 April 26 / wineparty

It is over. Why the anti-wine campaign in the media is nearing its end

(Manfred Klimek) Some movements begin as a corrective and end as a campaign. And there are campaigns that work on intensifying their own position for so long that they eventually implode. The sober and dry movement, which has argued against wine consumption with remarkable vehemence since January 2023, seems to have reached precisely this point. What began as a public-health initiative, Read the full article…