News
Success Stories
Wine+Partners celebrates its 35th anniversary
Legendary winemaker Michael Silacci (Opus One) came from California to congratulate the Wine+Partners team in person.
© Anna Stöcher
A summer Christmas in Europe: A Christmas tree decorated in June, some of the most prominent figures from the worlds of gastronomy and wine, and a Who’s Who of the gourmet industry…this is only found at the legendary ‘Weinachtel’ event organised by Wine+Partners. This year saw a very special edition to mark the company’s 35th anniversary.
This year’s event featured two firsts: for the first time, ‘Weinachtel’ was celebrated in the Austrian village of Prellenkirchen at the vineyard of its founder, Dorli Muhr. The name Weinachtel – a play on the German words for Christmas, wine and small pour – suggests a December celebration but this year it was held in mid-summer, on 21 June. Around 150 guests partied late into the night, with Austrian talents DJ Turnmaster Tim and Trio Lepschi keeping the party going.
Winemakers travelled from near and far for this gourmet gathering. Michael Silacci from Opus One made a special trip from Napa Valley while Willi Stürz from Tramin winery travelled from Alto Adige. Closer to home, Esterházy’s director, Dr Stefan Ottrubay, accompanied by Wolfgang Hewarth (Esterházy winery), attended along with renowned winemakers Albert Gesellmann and Gerhard Kracher. Austrian wine legend Willi Klinger, Austrian Wine Marketing CEO Chris Yorke and fine wine expert Clemens Riedl from trinkreif mingled with numerous figures from the cultural and media worlds. Maria Grossbauer celebrated her recent Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art as well as Wine+Partners’ 35th anniversary. Hans Martin Gesellmann, the new wine editor-in-chief for Falstaff magazine, joined Alexandra Seyer-Gmeinbauer and Reinhold Gmeinbauer (Gaumen Hoch) and Alexandra Graski-Hoffmann (M.A.C. Hoffmann).
Austria’s main wine regions were well represented with Stefan Krispel and Verena Langmann from Styria, Hanna Glatzer, Johanna and Helene Markowitsch and Robert Payr from Carnuntum, Albert Gesellmann and Gerhard Lobner from Weinviertel.
Three-star cuisine
An exceptional culinary line-up and what is arguably Austria’s finest catering service underlined the high standards of Weinachtel. Birgit and Heinz Reitbauer from the three Michelin-star Steirereck restaurant in Vienna, together with their son Lorenz and daughter Charlotte, prepared a warm salad and ragout from wild mushrooms. Later in the evening, Martin Nuart and Philipp Medved from Bär & Schaf Wirtschaft in Carinthia served delicious mincemeat patties, while late in the evening, game-flavoured Leberkäs, an Austrian specialty meatloaf, from Schloss Litschau was devoured by guests in between dances on the winery lawn.
Meanwhile, organic farmer Andreas Speckl prepared creative free-range egg dishes, Eva-Maria Nuart dished up the country’s finest sheep’s cheese and the legendary Frau Erna sliced delicious ham off the bone from Vienna institution Schwarzer Kameel, accompanied by bread from Viennese bakery Ährlich.
In true Carnuntum style, the Prellenkirchen church choir treated party-goers to homemade pastries, Müller&Gartner bakery surprised the Wine+Partners team with a birthday cake, and to top it all off, there was that all-important coffee from local roastery, Zwickel.
Goosebump worthy wines
As befits one of the world’s most renowned specialist agencies in the fine food and drink sector, the bar featured not only some of the world’s most sought-after wines, but also the people behind them. Special guest Michael Silacci from the iconic Opus One winery in California graced the Vienna-based agency with his presence, as did Master of Wine Roman Horvath from Domäne Wachau. The Douro Boys from Portugal – a creation of Wine+Partners and a fixture on the world’s finest wine lists – were represented by their wines, with some offering aged Port and other wines for the celebration.
Also in high demand at the wine bar was the Chilean equivalent of Opus One: Seña, produced by Robert Mondavi and Eduardo Chadwick. From the other side of the world, in Australia, Penfolds sent a rare bottle of wine from 1991, the year Wine+Partners was founded.
A selection of beers from the Independent Private Breweries of Austria, Thalheimer water and non-alcoholic sparkling wines from Prinz Salm winery and Viktoria Preiss rounded out the refreshment selection.
Better together...
“Stronger together” has been the agency’s motto for more than 35 years. Wine+Partners seeks to join forces with like-minded people as often and in as many ways as possible, both when celebrating and at work. It’s only natural, then, that numerous organisations were also represented side by side at Weinachtel: Österreichischen Traditionsweingüter (ÖTW) by Managing Director Michael Tischler-Zimmermann, the Pannobile Group, Eisenberg DAC and, of course, the Local Heroes from Carnuntum.
...for 35 years
The company’s 35th anniversary also provided a special reason to celebrate. When Dorli Muhr, a 25-year-old translation student, reinvented PR in the food and drink scene back in 1991 – from a tiny office under her loft bed, with her most productive employee being a fax machine which beeped around the clock, she could never have imagined, even in her wildest dreams, where the journey would take her and her agency.
Today, 20 female and one male staff member are working with even greater dedication and, above all, more passion than that legendary fax machine did to further develop the domestic and international wine and hospitality industries. Starting with traditional PR, Wine+Partners has continuously expanded its scope of activities to include consultancy and strategy workshops, social media marketing and more. Even after 35 years, the company’s motto remains as true as ever: “Ask Wine+Partners. They know how to do it.”
Downloads
All press photos
