Executive Board

He has been working as a winegrowing consultant for 28 years. As a co-initiator and founding member of PIWI International, PIWI grape varieties and the promotion of their cultivation have played an important role in his work from the very beginning. He is committed to sustainable, organic winegrowing. It is particularly important to him to reduce the use of pesticides in winegrowing by increasing the cultivation of PIWI grape varieties.

Since In 2016 he became chairman of PIWI Austria and has been working in wine research for over 25 years, focusing on PIWI grape varieties. He sees PIWI International as an umbrella organization and central hub for the international PIWI network.

As a graduate engineer (FH), he worked in sales and marketing for many years and was able to establish numerous contacts in other European countries. He is particularly interested in sustainable nutrition, especially wine. For this reason, he is involved with PIWI International and Slow Food. His goal is to convince as many wine drinkers as possible of the advantages of PIWI grape varieties.

As a research assistant at BOKU University and part-time winemaker, she represents the topic of PIWIs with joy and commitment and tests their future viability with regard to abiotic and biotic stress factors - both in the laboratory and in the field. She values the professional exchange and learning from and with each other as a core competence of the PIWI International Association and is pleased to be able to contribute to it.

He has been working with PIWI vines since 1985. He was a member of a team that imported promising new varieties from European research institutes and also worked on new varieties of PIWI grapes. Since 1996 he has been cultivating 2.3 hectares of PIWI varieties organically. His tasks and goals are to further develop and establish PIWI grape varieties in the Czech Republic.

He is the director of the Centre for Research in Viticulture and Enology of CREA-VE, the Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. As a former research director of the San Michele all'Adige Foundation (FEM) and an expert in genetics and breeding in fruit and wine growing, he brings extensive expertise to the association. In addition to his role on the board of PIWI International, he is also vice president and Italian representative of PIWI Italy.

He has been dedicated to winemaking for more than 12 years and manages a 2-hectare PIWI organic vineyard in Klagenfurt, Carinthia. The PIWIs are particularly close to his heart - tasteful, innovative and sustainable. As a cultural manager, he organizes various festivals that focus primarily on wine and cultural education.

She is a trained industrial clerk and has been training part-time in the field of wine sensory analysis since 2018. Her passion is enjoyment combined with sustainability, which is also reflected in her commitment to the PIWI grape varieties. With her eye for innovative approaches, she wants to contribute to the further development of a sustainable wine industry.