Luckily you have friends that will go through thick and thin with you - or who will at least enjoy a good meal with you.

Georg Grohs is one such person. A wonderful eater, a person who can say something intelligent after a 14-course meal. Something like: "What are we going to eat now?"

Georg Grohs is a wine merchant -- and an exceptional epicurean. Really, he is first and foremost an exceptional person, but it is in combination with enjoyment and pleasure that he truly puts his best foot forward.

Having someone like that deal in wines is profitable in every sense -- it's profitable for him, for his customers and not least of all for the winemakers that he represents. For Georg Grohs (not to be confused with the painter Georg Grosz), a good wine is not just a commodity; rather, it is a life mission -- in several respects.

For all that, where wine is concerned he did not come into this world under the most propitious circumstances. Georg Grohs was born in Vienna in 1965 -- a thoroughly miserable wine year.
The young Grohs also did not have anything to do with wine for a long time. At home, his parents only drank--if they drank at all--a mediocre wine from a two-litre bottle. He only became aware of wine in 1985 thanks to the European wine scandal. Back then the idea that one could earn his bread with wine of all things still eluded him.

It was only years later while he was travelling through Italy and France that he discovered his fondness for the world of good wines. He was probably somewhere in Tuscany having a sip of a full-bodied Brunello and vast amounts of pasta and prosciutto when it occurred to him to make a profession out of wine. Today he says that it was the best idea he ever had as he puts on his characteristic smile.
In 1992 he founded Grohs Weinhandels Ges.m.b.H. Then, he began importing primarily Italian wines to Austria. In 1996 he started to include renowned Austrian winemakers in his portfolio -- from Bründlmayer to Umathum.

Since then, Georg Grohs has become one of the most innovative wine merchants in the industry. His selection is sophisticated and abounds in great names. But he also always adds to his portfolio unknown winemakers who in his eyes deserve support.

He has a close, personal relationship with many producers.
For example, with the local producers who are dedicated to biodynamic wine production - a worldwide trend that has turned into something unstoppable. For many years, Grohs has also been an active consultant for the Viennese winemaker Fritz Wieninger.

There are many more good things to say about the private individual called Georg Grohs, but they would not have anything to do with the topic at hand. However, it must be said that rarely is a person able to so successfully blur the divide between personal preferences and professional interests.
By the way, his famous namesake, the abovementioned German-American painter Georg Grosz, died after a very creative life when he moved to Berlin in 1969; his death was the result of a long night out.
 
*Herbert Hacker is a gourmet journalist who writes on food and drink every week in News and Format. He is the chief editor of the "Falstaff Restaurant Guide" and a book author.