Alois Kracher

Alois Kracher Jr. (23 February 1959 – 5 December 2007, in

Robert M. Parker, Jr., who awarded 98 points or higher on his famous 100-point scale to several of Kracher's wines. His fame was mainly built on his sweet wines, so called Trockenbeerenauslesen (TBA) of high sweetness and enormous concentration that results from the development of noble rot on the grapes. Local conditions on the shallow Lake Neusiedl, where the Kracher vineyards are situated, are conducive to the development of Botrytis cinerea (the fungus responsible for noble rot

).

Biography

Kracher first studied chemistry and worked as a chemist in the pharmaceutical industry. In 1981 he started working part-time as a winemaker in the winery of his father Alois Kracher Senior (born 1929), and from 1986 this became a full-time activity for Alois, with focus on sweet wines.^[1] He brought fame to the business with his new style of sweet TBAs. Alois Senior continued to work in the vineyards while Alois Junior was in charge of winemaking and overall management. This first vintage to receive broad acclaim was 1991.

In 2007, Kracher died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 48 in Illmitz, Burgenland, Austria. He was married and had a son, Gerhard Kracher (born 1981), who at the time of Alois' death had been working in the family's wine business for a number of years.

Awards and acclaim

Beginning in 1994, he received numerous awards for his wines. Kracher was the recipient of several prizes from various sources for best Austrian wine or winery of the year, sweet wine maker of the year and such, including "Winemaker of the Year" by the

Semillon.^[3]

With Boston-based Spanish importer Jorge Ordóñez, Kracher created a winery in Málaga, Spain, making dry and sweet muscat wines from old hillside vineyards.

References

^ Geschichte des Weines, Persönlichkeiten der Weinkultur: Kracher, Alois (1959−2007)^{[permanent dead link]} (in German)
^ "Alois Kracher died at the age of 48". Jancis Robinson.com. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2014-08-12.
^ Wine Advocate #172, August 2007

External links

Obituary in The Times, 10 December 2007
Eric Asimov (2007-12-10). "Alois Kracher, Austrian Winemaker and Advocate, Is Dead at 48". The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-12-11.
Decanter.com: Alois Kracher dies
Austria.lu, „Alois Kracher is dead“, 5. December 2007
Weinlaubenhof Kracher

[1] Geschichte des Weines, Persönlichkeiten der Weinkultur: Kracher, Alois (1959−2007)^{[permanent dead link]} (in German)

[2] "Alois Kracher died at the age of 48". Jancis Robinson.com. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2014-08-12.

[3] Wine Advocate #172, August 2007

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