Pleasure for a good cause

When we had the idea in summer to hold an evening as part of the Dine & Wine Festival 2025 in honour of our colleague and star chef Anna Matscher, who sadly passed away suddenly in spring, we didn't realise how much support and joy we would receive.

It was a very emotional and joyful moment when we told Luis and his daughter Elisabeth Matscher about our idea. At the same time, we all realised that we not only wanted to remember Anna with this evening, but also do something for charity.

The big question was how to go about it. There was no experience. The basic idea was to save costs by getting the wines sponsored for the evening and persuading selected chefs from Anna's circle to keep their restaurants closed and cook in Anna's honour and, above all, for a good cause on the final evening of Dine & Wine.

We were overwhelmed and briefly a little perplexed by the huge response. Not only did the guest chefs quickly confirm their participation, but 23 of the 25 wineries we approached sent us 12 bottles of wine each. We had counted on a maximum of ten acceptances.

To the Dine & Wine 2025

Now that we had received more wine donations than we could have used that evening, we were faced with the question of what to do with the remaining bottles. Put them in the cellar, sell them later in our restaurants and somehow increase the donation amount? That didn't seem right to us.

So we had to come up with a new idea, which we quickly developed as a team. The great thing was that we got our guests even more involved in the fundraising campaign:

We sell you tickets for 25 euros and every ticket is a sure winner. What is it? One of the remaining bottles of wine that we don't need for the dinner.

Our aim was to donate a total of 10,000 euros. To motivate the guests to buy raffle tickets and also to make our own contribution, we promised to double or triple the amount donated by the guests through the raffle ticket sales. To do this, we had to sell 134 raffle tickets and we were very excited to see if we would succeed.

Hostess Maria Dobitsch as the lucky fairy, the good wines and, last but not least, the excellent food created a great atmosphere and ultimately 4,675 euros were raised through the sale of 187 raffle tickets. We were overwhelmed and delighted with this large sum, which we were happy to triple to 14,025 euros.

Our children are our greatest happiness and the basis for our future. We are very grateful to have two healthy girls and for Anna, too, her grandchildren were the greatest gift.

Knowing full well that not everyone can grow up so healthy and carefree, together with the Matscher family we have chosen two organisations as recipients of donations that look after children who have been struck by fate at an early age.

The children's illness is by no means just a life-changing challenge for them, but often for the whole family.

The Peter Pan Association supports children with cancer and their families in South Tyrol by providing psychosocial support, financial assistance, accommodation near specialised clinics and the promotion of child-friendly treatment rooms. It accompanies parents and siblings and helps them to cope with the stresses of everyday life during treatment.

The Kinderherz association is committed to helping children and young people with heart disease. It offers information, advice, psychological support, exchanges between affected families and help with organisational, medical and bureaucratic issues. It also promotes leisure, sports and social programmes to improve the quality of life, self-confidence and solidarity of families.

We recently presented the presidents of both associations - Dr Michael Mayr (Peter Pan) and Dr Ulrich Seitz (Kinderherz) - with a cheque for € 7,025 each. We would like to thank them both for the pleasant exchange and for their valuable work.

An idea alone is not enough. You need people who see the good sense in it and who support and implement it accordingly. Accordingly, our first thanks go to Luis and Elisabeth Matscher for their trust in allowing us to organise the evening in memory of Anna.

We would also like to thank the four guest chefs for their valuable support and the delicious dishes they prepared for our guests.

A big thank you to:

• Egon Heiss | Restaurant Prezioso *
• Werner Unterhofer | Restaurant Pirbamer
• Stephan Zippl | Restaurant 1908 *
• The Matscher family with Carolina Scarabello & Agata Carini | Restaurant Zum Löwen

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Speckbauer Heinrich Pöder, Fischzucht Schiefer, Hansi Baumgartner (cheese affiner Degust), and Brennerei St. Urban for their support on this evening.

We would also like to thank the 23 wineries, wine estates and suppliers who each donated 12 bottles of wine for this evening and thus made the fantastic fundraising campaign with the sale of raffle tickets possible:

• The wineries Arunda Sekt, Bozen, Girlan, Kurtatsch, Muri-Gries, Schreckbichl, St. Michael Eppan, Terlan and Tramin
• The wineries Abraham, Alois Lageder, Elena Walch, Erbhof Unterganzner, Franz Haas, Gumphof, Kettmeir, Kornell, Manincor, Niedrist, Pfitscher and Tiefenbrunner
• Our suppliers Fine Wines (Peter Dipoli Winery) and the Merano Wine House (Az. Agr. Cà dei Frati)

Last but not least, we would like to thank our dear guests of Dine & Wine 2025 for their generosity. We very much hope that you will enjoy the wines you have won and that you will think back to this wonderful and emotional evening as you savour them.

We will certainly remember it fondly forever!