Germany · Alto Adige · Austria · Switzerland · Trends
Future Casting
Trink Magazine | Valerie Kathawala hazards forecasts for the future of wines from Alto Adige-Südtirol, Austria, Germany, and German-speaking Switzerland.
Fresh, Frank and Fiercely Carnuntum
Trink Magazine | Austria's winegrowing region of Carnuntum has seemingly been there from the beginning with an identity forever in flux. Paula Redes Sidore explores how growers are redefining what regionality means, together.
Eat + TRINK | A Sweet Delicacy Calls for Schiava
Lunar New Year (aka Spring Festival, or Guo Nian in Mandarin) is arguably the most important holiday for people of Chinese heritage — especially in Taiwan, where I grew up. It’s been my favorite since I was a kid. Now, living in Brooklyn, I recall that a few days before the New Year every household starts to “sweep the dust” to banish bad luck, erase unhelpful habits, and create positive new ones. On the day before New Year’s Eve (a holiday we call Little New Year’s Eve), we will take down the old Spring Festival couplets and replace them with fresh verses. On New…...
Holiday Gift Guide 2022
Gifts, gifts, gifts! What to give the Wein lover in your life — or yourself? We gathered pro tips from TRINK writers and staff and other experts to offer you a singular selection in our very first gift guide. Recommended by our Hamburg-based trend guru Nils Kevin Puls, these cult winemaker shirts and hoodies are a super fun way to flaunt your umlaut IYKYK. This dope pick would make your Burgenland-obsessed bestie’s day. Only a handful of wine lovers will ever make it to the rarefied circle of Masters of Wine. But thanks to iconic Swiss pocket knife maker Victorinox, we…...
Is It Truly ‘Aus’ with Auslese?
With production levels dwindling, many German wine circles are asking the uncomfortable question “Is Auslese finished?” David Schildknecht answers.
A Queer-Forward Wine Shop Gives New Wings to Umlaut Wines
March 25, 2024 Update: Schmetterling has closed. It’s owners hope to reopen in the future. Are there parallels between German and Austrian wines, small-scale farming, and the queer community? If so, the most essential may be a shared need for safe space. Schmetterling, a queer-forward natural wine and vinyl shop that opened this summer in rural Vermont, aims to offer just that. By prioritizing the needs of communities at — admittedly starkly unequal — risk, owners Danielle Pattavina and Erika Dunyak have created an unlikely outpost for low-intervention German, Austrian, and other Alpine wines. The shop is both an incubator…...
Big Rainbow Love in Burgenland
Calling from the expansive, flat landscape that forms the western edge of the Pannonian Puszta steppe flatlands, Erich Stekovics is a lone voice in the tomato world. Where others seek high yield and hardy reliability, Stekovics makes the case for flavor and site. He and his wife Priska belong to the tiny share of Austrian farmers cultivating tomatoes without the cover of glass or foil, and without irrigation. At the eponymous estate in Frauenkirchen, the pair cultivate and safeguard several thousand varieties in the open, and in addition to chili peppers, onions, and garlic, their fields are surrounded by vines…....
Risk and Reward in Austria’s Warming Wachau
In an age defined by climate emergency, can winegrowers in Austria's warming Wachau react and adapt fast enough to maintain the region's historic pole position?
Eat + TRINK | The Yin-Yang of Lagrein and Jing Jiang Rou Si
TRINK Magazine | It was a wine, not a memory, that motivated Joyce Lin to make Jing Jian Rou Si: the Kellerei Kaltern 2018 Lagrein Riserva ‘Largeith.’ Recipe and pairing included.
Weingut Blankenhorn: French Inspiration, Local Engagement
Weingut Blankenhorn It wasn’t love at first sight for Martin and Yvonne Männer of Weingut Blankenhorn in Schliengen. On a trip to Switzerland in spring 2015, they were initially disappointed by the Gutedel (a.k.a. Chasselas) they found there. Or, to be more precise: by how the vintners they encountered vinified it. But when they ordered a bottle of 18-year-old Chasselas Médinette Dézalay Grand Cru from Domaine Louis Bovard on their last night in Geneva, at the Michelin-starred Le Chat-Botté, they realized they had found the key to making a multifaceted, indeed divine Gutedel. Ever since, Langlebigkeit, or longevity, has been part of Weingut Blankenhorn’s DNA. Their wines tell a…...
Germany · Essay · Mosel · Tasting Article
What’s German for Drier Than Dry? Furztrocken, of course
The dark wit of Berlin. Dangerously low water levels in the Rhine River. Black bread. Germany does trocken like few others. And then there’s the wine. Despite its reputation as the land of Blue Nun, more than 60 percent of the wines made in Germany are dry. And within that 60 percent, there are discernible levels of dry, drier, and driest. So dry, in fact, that there’s a strangely specific word for it. (Of course there’s a word. It’s Germany. There’s always a word.) Furztrocken. Fart Dry. Literally. As difficult to grasp as I find a term like feinherb, it’s Kinderspiel when compared to furztrocken. Then again, mindset…...
Happy Wine Hikes in Alto Adige: 7 Rules
Wine and hiking expert Ellen Wallace guides readers to the green heart of Alto Adige with stops at biodynamic winery Manincor and leading cooperative Kellerei Kaltern.