I’m sending the first newsletter of 2025 as I return from a 2,800 km (1,700 miles) road-trip from Vienna to Paris back to Vienna after dropping off 450 bottles of Austrian wine.

The bottles are for the Le Austrian Wine Pop-Up a crazy idea hatched a year ago. The idea was inspired by an article which stated that less than 1% of Austrian wine is imported into France — a strange fact since the French love natural wines and Austria has 24% of its area under vine certified as organic — that equals 10,432 hectares, the equivalent of 15,000 football fields, according to the Austrian Wine Marketing Board.

After sharing the idea with a handful of wineries the idea grew and grew, and we now have nearly 40 wineries participating (click for list).

For the entire month we are pouring Austrian wines from both small, artisanal to historic, multi-generational family wineries, at the Fringe Cafe in Paris on 1 February at 18:00. If you didn’t get a chance to taste my 2023 vintage I will have six bottles available for tasting.

The timing is also perfect as February will host RAW Wine Paris and the Paris Wine Expo, along with some smaller natural wine events.

For the past month we have been inviting sommeliers, wine shop owners, chefs, journalists, wine book authors, wine influencers, wine tour guides and importers, to attend.

If you have any friends or family in Paris please tell them to stop by and ask for me — I’ll be sure to give them the VIP treatment. You can share this digital postcard or this website.

2024 Kapitel Zwei Vintage

The 2023 vintage, an assemblage of Grüner Veltliner and Chenin Blanc, was called Alibi. A funny, not-so-subtle joke about the fact that I was in New York for my apprenticeship and not in the vineyard for the harvest in October 2023.

Of course this year, I was in Austria harvesting the grapes with Marie-Helene, my dad and brother, which means I have no alibi for the 2024 vintage, hence the 2024 vintage name No Excuses — if you don’t like it, there is only me to blame 😧.

The 2024 vintage also includes a 100% Riesling wine with grapes sourced from a vineyard I am renting in Kremsleithen, about 100 meters from Kapitel Zwei, and my good friends at Feldtheorie. I’m calling this wine Dilemma because I typically frown at the taste of a young, acidic Riesling, i.e. a difficult choice had to be made -- do I make a wine with Riesling or not?

Both wines are currently aging in separate amphorae on the gross lees (dead yeast) until the end of 2025, this is expected to reduce some of the acidity in the Riesling.

I expect around 100 bottles of each and while the aging continues you don’t have to wait to get on the allocation list.

Just click below and fill in the “Notify Me” button with your email address and I’ll add you to the list (nothing to pay) — for those of you who already contacted me you don’t need to do this again. Both will be 20 EUR, USD or CHF per 500 ml bottle.

• 2024 Dilemma (Riesling)

• 2024 No Excuses (Grüner Veltliner & Chenin Blanc)

I hope to see you in Paris if not you can follow along on Instagram with the #austrianwinepopup

Prost!