Lingerie Lovelies Lure Drinkers to Austrian Wine – Wine

A publisher in Austria has been quietly promoting Austrian wine for the last decade in a way that is as old as time itself: with pictures of sexy ladies in their lingerie.

The Jungwinzerinnen (Young Female Winemakers) calendar shows off the, erm, softer side of Austrian winemaking. Twelve women from Burgenland, Neiderosterreich, Styria and Vienna have bared nearly all in order to attract attention for the national wine industry. 

The calendar is the brainchild of Ellen Ledermüller-Reiner, a (presumably feminist) publisher based in Burgenland. The 2015 edition will be the 12th, and for a mere $32 (25 euros), your office or kitchen can look like the bedroom of a 14-year-old boy.

But! It’s wine, so no fear: it’s classy. Ledermüller-Reiner told Decanter in 2011: “It should attract attention and be sexy, but not be cheap or overly erotic.” OK, yep, you sure ticked all those boxes.

Twelve months and 12 women means that the calendar captures a year in the life of the scantily clad winemaker in some detail. Pruning, harvesting, cleaning tanks, lying awkwardly on some stairs clutching a carafe of Grüner Veltliner: it has all been laid bare for the public to see.

The aim of the calendar is to promote Austrian wine, which has been largely devoid of sexiness following the anti-freeze scandal of the 1980s. That’s not to say it isn’t good: Grüner Veltliner and Riesling from above the Danube has held critics’ attention for some time, and vibrant, red Blaufrankisch wines are well on their way to becoming favorites of hipster sommeliers. One can’t help but think that this calendar flies in the face of that image.

There is obviously a lot of demand for the calendar (sarcasm aside, it is, in essence, 12 pictures of nubile women in their underwear). I assume the calendar’s male counterpart is on its way: surely 12 months’ worth of dirt-smeared, topless men would sell a copy or two?

Or, y’know, we could just drink Austrian wine and be adults about it.

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