Would You Drink a Nazi Wine??

Very interesting article in Grape Collective on Zweigelt wine from Austria:
Zweigelt
Back in the early '30, Dr.Fritz Zweigelt headed the research institute at Kloster Neuburger, tasked to develop new grape varieties particularly suited to Austria. He developed a Blaufrankisch X St.Laurent cross that was particularly good and is now the most widely planted red grape in Austria. He named the grape Rotburger, not a very good marketing name. At the behest of LenzMoser, the name Rotburger was officially renamed to Zweigelt in 1975, in honor of the developer.
It turns out there was a dark side to Dr.Zweigelt. He was a fervent supporter of the National Socialist movement of Germany. When they took over Austria in 1938, he became member of the National Socialist party and espoused their views widely. He was responsible for the purges at Kloster Neuburger that destroyed the careers of many of his colleagues who did not support the Nazi cause. After the war, he was charged w/ treason & warmongering and convicted. His sentence for "warmongering" was subsequently reduced to "oratorical lapses". He returned to Graz & lived out his life quietly, dying in 1964.
As described in the article, there has been some recent detailed research into the wartime behavior of Dr.Zweigelt. There is now a move afoot in the Austrian wine community to remove the name Zweigelt and return it to Rotburger. In fact, some producers (Hannes Schuster, for one) have already renamed their Zweigelt to Rotburger. An official decision is to come in December.
Anyway, a rather interesting article, also touched upon in the "Godforsaken Grapes" book.
So....would you refuse to drink a Zweigelt, now knowing the background of its developer? Would you favor returning the official name of Zweigelt to Rotberger? Would you favor destroying all the memorials to Robert E. Lee in this country?
Tom

[David M. Bueker]

As usual you take your point too far, and obscure the issue in the interest of stirring the pot. Your Robert E. Lee addendum is especially egregious.

The grapes don’t care who created them.

[Robin Garr]

Would you favor destroying all the memorials to Robert E. Lee in this country?
Tom

Yeah, I'm down with that. I'll leave the decision on Zweigelt up to the Austrian wine industry, although I don't have any problem with conscience-based name changes by the people affected.

[David M. Bueker]

Some Zweigelt being made in British Columbia. Are they now classified as collaborators in Mr. Hill’s world?

The fact that Zweigelt was a keen Nazi won't stop my drinking wine from the grape named after him.

By the same token I'm not throwing out all my records of Herbert von Karajan and Elisabeth Schwarzkopf just because of allegations of their complicity with the Nazis during WW2. Should I refuse biodynamic wine because Steiner's racial theories were an inspiration to the Nazis or cease listening to Wagner's operas because Hitler loved the Germanic symbolism of these works........?

I'd encourage people to read the article Tom linked to, if only because it's specifically not about whether people should refuse to drink Zweigelt or not (or even whether they should listen to Karajan or read Heidegger); it's actually a pretty detailed and subtle story about how Austrian winemakers are navigating the question of what Zweigelt/Rotburger should be called. Nobody's proposing (except Tom) that the variety is permanently contaminated by the politics of the guy who first bred it in 1922. If anything, the relevant date here isn't 1922 but 1975, when Lenz Moser got the variety renamed in honor of Fritz Zweigelt, and it looks to me like the Austrians largely acknowledge that THAT poses a real issue, even if they come down on the side of preserving the name because there might be no market for varietal Rotburger. The grape is the grape, but it didn't come with its name; it was GIVEN its name in (at best) a cloud of half-willful historical amnesia. If Austrian winemakers now want to rethink that honor -- or decide that what was an honor to Fritz turned out to be a dishonor to the wine -- I have no problem with that, any more than I have a problem with the elimination of Confederate memorials erected during Jim Crow, or the removal of Confederate flags first flown (as in the South Carolina State Capitol) in 1961, as symbols of defiance of the Black freedom struggle. (And if you're inclined to complain that this is "whitewashing history," I'd encourage you to read this, though it has nothing to do with wine: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pit ... university)

</rant>

[Robin Garr]

</rant>

Well done!

[David M. Bueker]

The background issue has been raised in the past. Rotburger is indeed a tough sell. Of course Zweigelt is not exactly hot cakes.

I tasted wines with Zweigelt at two British Columbia wineries this week. One called it Zweigelt. The other called it Rotburger. The one featuring it as a varietal wine called it Zweigelt.

I'd encourage people to read the article Tom linked to, if only because it's specifically not about whether people should refuse to drink Zweigelt or not (or even whether they should listen to Karajan or read Heidegger); it's actually a pretty detailed and subtle story about how Austrian winemakers are navigating the question of what Zweigelt/Rotburger should be called. Nobody's proposing (except Tom) that the variety is permanently contaminated by the politics of the guy who first bred it in 1922. If anything, the relevant date here isn't 1922 but 1975, when Lenz Moser got the variety renamed in honor of Fritz Zweigelt, and it looks to me like the Austrians largely acknowledge that THAT poses a real issue, even if they come down on the side of preserving the name because there might be no market for varietal Rotburger. The grape is the grape, but it didn't come with its name; it was GIVEN its name in (at best) a cloud of half-willful historical amnesia. If Austrian winemakers now want to rethink that honor -- or decide that what was an honor to Fritz turned out to be a dishonor to the wine -- I have no problem with that, any more than I have a problem with the elimination of Confederate memorials erected during Jim Crow, or the removal of Confederate flags first flown (as in the South Carolina State Capitol) in 1961, as symbols of defiance of the Black freedom struggle. (And if you're inclined to complain that this is "whitewashing history," I'd encourage you to read this, though it has nothing to do with wine: https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pit ... university)

</rant>

Yes, that article is worth reading. It's encouraging that at least some Austrian growers are facing up to their country's Nazi past, which Austrians in general have hitherto been more reluctant to do than the Germans. I love Billy Wilder's comment on post-war Austrians. "The Austrians are brilliant people. They made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian."

However, I agree with others that renaming the "Zweigelt" grape "Rotburger" would be a source of commercial confusion, even without its connotations for English speakers.