26^th Styrian Wine Trophy – this is how you celebrate wine!

On the 4^th of May 2023, after a 3-year break due to corona, the Styrian Wine Trophy Gala took place again in great splendour at the Bad Gleichenberg Tourism Schools.  For the first time, the DAC system of origin was implemented at the Styrian Wine Trophy and the number of categories was expanded to 15. The tastings were again conducted in the presence of a notary public and thanks to the excellent conditions in the 2022 wine year, 1000 wines were submitted.

In advance, 45 finalists, i.e. 3 finalist wines in each of 15 categories, were filtered out by means of tastings.  The 15 winners were then determined by a jury consisting exclusively of graduate sommeliers put together by the WIFI Wein Welt in the framework of a new cooperation.

One or two winemakers were rewarded for their achievements with multiple nominations – such as the Kodolitsch winery, which led the field with 2 awards from 3 nominations, or the Pfeifer winery, which also took home 2 trophies in 2 nominated categories.

The evening was opened with culinary fireworks created by 3 top representatives of the profession. None other than the JRE (Jeune Restaurateur Europe) chefs Richard Rauch from the Rauch siblings, Markus Rath from Schlosskeller Südsteiermark and Jürgen Csencsits from Gasthaus Csencsits spoiled the guests with various delicacies. Afterwards, the 15 winners were announced and then tasted, accompanied by an amazing degustation menu. Subsequently, the guests could taste the equally excellent finalist wines.

The coveted trophies in the individual categories went to the following winemakers:

The guests were spoiled with delicacies prepared and served by the students of the Bad Gleichenberg tourism schools. They were rewarded for their great performances with much applause. The gala was accompanied musically by the Styrian music ensemble G’suacht und G’fundn, the TSBG school band and star trumpeter Toni Meier.

The Styrian Wine Trophy took place for the 26^th time this year and is proof of the long-standing close cooperation between the Bad Gleichenberg Tourism Schools and Styrian Wine. Above all, the training to become a Young Sommelier, which has been around for more than 25 years and has already been completed by more than 600 students, is an important component. The consistently outstanding results in the Young Sommelier competitions are proof of the high quality of the wine training at the Bad Gleichenberg Tourism Schools.