The Tyrolean sommelier and wine author Egon Mark (*1942) has devoted himself - both professionally and privately - to the subject of wine for decades. He discovered his interest in grape juice about 50 years ago in Sweden, where he worked in various houses of top gastronomy. Through the sommelier association "Munskänkförening" it was possible to attend wine seminars regularly. Following the example of the wine association in Sweden, he founded Austria's first sommelier association in 1987, the Tyrolean Sommelier Association. After training as a certified sommelier (one of the first in Austria), Mark graduated from the Austrian Wine Academy in Rust and in 1994 was one of the first wine academics to receive a WSET diploma.
In addition to his main job as a specialist teacher at the College for Tourism and Leisure Industry in Innsbruck, Egon Mark passed on his extensive knowledge of wine at the Wine Academy and at the WIFI's. He also took part in sommelier competitions and was named "Falstaff Sommelier of the Year 1992". At the SOPEXA Grand Prix 1994 he won the title "Austria's best sommelier for French wines and spirits". In 1995 he received the Bacchus Prize for special services to Austrian wine.
Increasingly, Mark was now also active as a wine author with articles in various magazines and as an author of paperbacks (Edition Löwenzahn). Parallel to lecturing at various courses and especially during his sommelier training, Mark created his first wine quiz and later the book "DAS WEINQUIZ - Wein lernen wie ein Sommelier" (Kornmayer brothers) with 1,220 questions and detailed explanations of the correct answers. In autumn 2011 the first app DAS WEINQUIZ for smart phones and tablets of the systems iOS and Android with more than 1,500 questions was created, soon followed by the apps WEINLEXIKON ÖSTERREICH, WEINLEXIKON FRANCE and WEINLEXIKON ITALIEN.
