The modern story of Austrian wine began with a disaster. After decades of success as a producer of bulk sweet wine for the German and British markets, Austrian wine-exports came to an abrupt halt in 1985, after news broke that a chemical used in anti-freeze had been found in Austrian wine. When inspectors announced that they would be testing the unsold stock of every bulk-producer in the country, the Danube underwent an algea-bloom due to the millions of gallons of wine being poured away. The industry collapsed, and began a long, slow climb back to international prominence over the subsequent 20 years, under a very different regulation-regime. Under the new rules, quality has been championed over quantity, and small family-producers and quality-obsessed co-operative wineries have flourished - join us this Thursday to taste the 2021 vintage from one of the best of these: Weingut Prager.