Issues

Clevner, Klebroth, Blauburgunder, Spätburgunder — Pinot Noir. These are the same grape, known by regional names that give local identity to a variety that now calls everywhere home.

Volume 20, the Summer Edition, explores the way an idea can – bee-like – move from person to person, place to place, collecting, cross-pollinating, and creating. And the result? Singular, stunning, and more often than not, quite sweet as well.

We’ve been dreaming up this volume for ages. The Mosel — river, valley, people, wines. All are objects of enduring fascination. A sense of the ancient remains tangible. Celts and Romans made this place home, long before the Germani. Yet, the origins of German wine are no less palpable in  the heroism, imagination, scrappiness, and courage of growers we celebrate today. 

We hope this volume will challenge you to think harder about what you’re putting in your glass — and why. As you weigh your own decisions around wine consumption, evaluate for yourself wine in its larger context. Wine labels show finite volume, while the understanding we ourselves bring is infinite.

We founded TRINK Magazine exactly three years ago this month with a clear vision: embracing the complexity — and even contradiction — needed to give context to the wines of German-speaking Europe.

Summer is about going places. Whether your travels involve a suitcase, a backpack, or a glass of wine and a journey in your own mind, TRINK Vol. 16 has you covered with eight stories of far-flung people and places.

German-speaking wines are at an inflection point. The “trend” toward all forms of what we might call reasoned viticulture — integrated pest management, organic, biodynamic, and regenerative practices — is moving closer to a norm.

Have you seen what’s happening in wine media lately? The shakeup — restructurings, dismissals, and closures — is seismic. It’s left us feeling both shaky and proud.

Welcome to the first summer edition of TRINK! Our stunning cover photo by multitalented contributor Nils Kevin Puls sets the tone: coloring outside the lines. When we consider the revolution playing out in wine across Alto Adige, Austria, Germany, and Switzerland, it’s clear that free thinkers and risk takers are at the fore, even as they ground their innovations in cultures of the past.

Without quite intending it, we find ourselves with a particularly food-focused collection in this volume. And we’re delighted. Because if there is one thing that’s too long been missing from the conversation about German-speaking wines, it’s the foods that go with them.

What is “German style”? In Volume 10, we explore this question from a range of perspectives.

It feels fitting to draw this strange year to a close with a collection of pieces that confront boundaries, shift perspectives, and blow open stereotypes.

The Anniversary Edition. Exactly one year ago today, with trembling fingers — we were fairly convinced that either no one would notice or everyone would and honestly weren’t sure which was more terrifying — we sent TRINK Vol. 01 out into the world.

Readability is to writing as drinkability is to wine. Conflict is tension; voice is momentum. And, of course, plot (as in vineyard) builds character. Whether it’s the linear precision of poetry, the tightly structured development of a short story, or the juicy flow of a novel, the careful selection of words and ideas is the foundation of good writing.

Over the past year, we’ve grown accustomed to keeping our heads down, focused on placing one foot in front of the other. Now we can look up and shift our focus, from tree back to forest.

In Vol. 05 you’ll find music scholar Ronald Merlino reassessing Beethoven’s life and works in the context of Viennese wine culture.

With spring emerging, the vines returning with the first bleed of new life and roots digging deep beneath the surface, we are once again reminded that what we see with the naked eye is an infinitely smaller portion of that which binds us to a place and to each other.

What’s in a name? As we put together this issue focused on the fascinating northern Italian border region of Südtirol-Alto Adige, we confronted a distinctive dual identity represented in two languages for every village, vineyard, and variety.

As we pulled together Issue 2, the usual holiday theme of bubbles surfaced. At first, we brushed it away. Too obvious, too discordant with our strange, dark times. But then we reconsidered. Bubble as metaphor. Bubbles, as Anne Krebiehl MW writes in our pages, as magnifiers. Bubbles as a state of being.

TRINK Magazine's debut issue offers a new way to look at German-speaking wines, in English.