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Wine

Never too young to start an empire

by Dorli Muhr

At the age of 10, Christina proudly told the audience at her primary school graduation ceremony that she was going to be a winemaker. "What is that?" her classmates asked her. "Wine farmer," she answered resolutely.

Christina kept her sights set on this goal and eventually turned her dream into reality. From an early age, she helped her father, Rainer Wess, label his wine bottles and spent a lot of time in the cellar during harvest. She attended the Austrian trade fair VieVinum for the first time at the age of 12, proving the maxim "practice makes perfect".

After lower secondary school, Christina attended the prestigious viticulture school in Klosterneuburg near Vienna. She went abroad after graduation, gaining valuable experience in top wineries and forging contacts who continue to influence her work in the cellar today.

The Burgundy relaxation

One of Christina's great role models is Guillaume d'Angerville, with whom she worked at the Marquis d'Angerville vineyard in Volnay, Burgundy in 2018.

There she learned on the job that a great vineyard can produce great wine. Following this principle, Christina now runs her own winery, which, along with her husband David, she took over from her father in 2023. The flagship wines of Wess Winery are the particularly high-quality Kremstal single vineyard Rieslings. These are matured for longer to give them the time and rest they need to develop into great wines.

Kremstal pioneer

Christina is not just a pioneer who has helped the Kremstal wine region be seen in a new light, but she is also setting a new example for many young women. Making a great wine today no longer depends on physical strength, but on tact, professional knowledge, organisational talents and the ability to transform the character of outstanding vineyards into emotional wines with soul.

About Weingut Wess

The Wess winery is run with passion by a young couple, Christina and David Juen-Wess. Christina is the daughter of founder Rainer Wess, who built up the winery from a small cellar with bought-in grapes to 15 ha of the best sites in Kremstal, Austria. Wess wines pay homage to the region – Christina emphasises the different characteristics of individual vineyards with sensitivity and know-how. They focus on Rieslings from those vineyards, which are cultivated with a back-to-nature approach, allowing the grapes time and space to develop.

Franziska Katterbauer
Franziska Katterbauer
Project Manager

With parents who were wine traders and restauranteurs, her love for wine began at an early age. However, Franziska took a different direction after graduating from high school, studying illustration and later advertising design. Wine+Partners offered the opportunity of reuniting these two passions. She is not only involved in the agency’s graphic design but jumps in to support numerous other projects.

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