Dine & Wine Festival 2025: A look back at an emotional festival

Since 2003, the Dine & Wine Festival has been the culinary highlight of our season year after year. Once again this year, many special people and great talents gathered at the Castel to organise four enjoyable days for our guests.

The 23rd edition focussed on Alpine cuisine and consequently the guest chefs came from the surrounding area.

Our head chef Gerhard Wieser was joined by the Tyrolean 2-star chef Johannes Nuding and the legend Bobby Bräuer.

A novelty this year was the fact that the chefs were joined by winemakers from the same country, who presented their wines to accompany the menu: the Bründlmayer winery from Austria, the Jülg winery from Germany and the St. Michael-Eppan winery from South Tyrol.

On the final evening, the kitchen doors were open again, and this time the deliberately casual evening was remembered by the guests for the many emotions it evoked.

Read why the Dine & Wine 2025 was so enjoyable. Have fun!

After the grandiose opening, Bobby Bräuer took over the kitchen at Castel on the second evening. After more than 30 years at the highest level - honoured with many stars, toques and titles such as "Chef of the Year" - he left his last place of work, the EssZimmer in BMW Welt - Munich, at the beginning of 2025. He had previously worked in many other places, including Düsseldorf, Berlin and Kitzbühel.

The consistently high quality of his cuisine and his exemplary manner over many decades were some of the reasons for both Gault Millau and Feinschmecker to honour the Munich-born chef twice for his life's work.

The wonderful fact that Bobby continues to wield the wooden spoon at special events and for friendly colleagues was great news, which we took as an opportunity to invite him directly to a Dine & Wine event.

His menu was to be accompanied by fine wines from the Jülg vineyard. Around 50% of the vines are in Germany and the other half in France. We were excited and full of anticipation.

Bobby Bräuer's menu was a dream - classic with modern touches and lots of great products: Chiemsee Renke, foie gras from Hungary, Norwegian scallops, Scottish wild salmon, suckling pig from Chiemgau and venison from Lower Bavaria were the main protagonists.

Moritz Jülg presented the excellent wines from his family vineyard with a lot of charm and heart. Not least because of this, it was a great evening!

As every year, our head chef Gerhard Wieser took it upon himself to cook for the finale of the grand gala dinners. This is always a great pleasure for him and his team, but also a challenge. Especially when, as was the case this year, the two guest chefs and their menus were so well received by our guests.

For Wieser, the culinary truth is on the plate. He combines the heartiness of the mountains and the wonderful lightness of the south in his Alpine-Mediterranean cuisine like no other. Harmony in the mouth challenges the chef, not the guest.

The evening's wines came from the famous St. Michael-Eppan winery.

The best conditions for a worthy finale, which the guests were once again particularly looking forward to. And they were not disappointed!

Gerhard Wieser and his team led the way with dishes packed with flavour, including some classics: char from the Passeier Valley in a kimchi broth, Parmigiano ravioli with white Alba truffle and dry-aged duck - a new highlight from the Castel finedining autumn menu.

A total of seven great courses were served by Maitre Simon Oberhofer and his team. All were perfectly accompanied by Ivana's selection of wines from the St. Michael Eppan winery. The highlights in the glass: the limited Appius, vintage 2020 and the two wines from the winery's own St. Valentin Reserve (The Wine Collection): The Gewürztraminer 2012 and the Cabernet-Merlot Riserva 2018.

A worthy conclusion to the grand gala dinner - particularly festive thanks to the ensemble led by violinist Günther Sanin and soprano Martina Bortolotti von Haderburg.

The last evening of Dine & Wine was once again kept casual this year and guests were invited to take a look behind the scenes. Unlike usual, however, the occasion was a sad one, although the evening was meant to be a happy one.

The reason was our chef colleague Anna Matscher, who sadly passed away suddenly in March. We wanted to remember her, dedicate this evening to her and do something good at the same time.

For this reason, we invited chefs who once worked for Anna and are now great chefs themselves: Egon Heiss from Restaurant Prezioso *, Werner Unterhofer from Restaurant Pirbamer, Stephan Zippl from Restaurant 1908 * and Carolina Scarabello & Agata Carini, who, together with the Matscher family, are continuing Anna's legacy at Restaurant Zum Löwen.

Thanks to the guest chefs, who each prepared a dish, there was plenty to try in addition to the delicacies prepared by Gerhard Wieser and his team. The variety in the glass was also particularly large, with up to 23 different wines. All the wines were sponsored by wineries because we wanted to do something good in memory of Anna.

Thanks to this generous support, the chefs' free participation and the donations from our guests, we raised over 14,000 euros.

For the guests, for our team and for us as a family, this last evening will forever remain a positive and emotional memory and our thanks go to everyone involved for this wonderful end to the four culinary days.

To find out how the large sum was raised and who benefits from it, please click on the button below.

To the Dine & Wine donation

On the second day, Ivana took us to the St. Michael-Eppan winery. There, sales manager Stefan Walcher was delighted to show our guests around the winery. The contrast between tradition and modernity was particularly impressive. One highlight was the winery's own cellar for the top cuvée Appius, with black tiles, a red floor and natural oak wood.

At the final tasting, the guests were able to savour the wide range of wines produced.

Things got sweet on the afternoon of the third day. Robert Gramm, owner of Plattner Bienenhof, brought a variety of different honeys to the Castel for tasting. Some guests were a little sceptical at first because "it's only honey", but their enthusiasm for the subject soon became apparent. Once again, it became clear just how exciting everyday things can be if you devote time and attention to them. Honey is just as diverse as wine and a pure natural product.

After three gala evenings, many guests' bodies were longing for exercise. So they joined their host Daniel Dobitsch to hike with him through the autumnal scenery around the Castel. After a good 2.5 hours back at the Castel, refreshments were already waiting for the hard-working people. On the lounge terrace, in bright sunshine, there was an excellent goulash soup, a traditional Marende (snack) and freshly roasted chestnuts.