Swiss wine expert joins VINUM: Nicolas Greinacher is new editor-in-chief

VINUM, the magazine for wine culture, is renewing its leadership. 40-year-old Nicolas Greinacher is taking the reins of the Swiss publication and will also be responsible for the international section. Before this appointment, he spent four years working as a wine expert for media group Ringier.

Greinacher succeeds longstanding VINUM staff member Thomas Vaterlaus (65), who is stepping down from the editorial leadership due to his retirement. However, he will continue to contribute his expertise to the magazine as a writer.

‘I am delighted to be working with a strong team to shape VINUM’s future. This is a wonderful yet also challenging task, and one for which I have the utmost respect. At the same time, we are all highly motivated to develop a magazine and a digital platform that surprise with their content and provide even more enjoyment for readers, as well as well-founded infotainment. Not mainstream, but truly VINUM’, Greinacher emphasised.

VINUM’s publisher Roland Köhler warmly welcomed this decision: ‘We plan to work with Nicolas Greinacher to continue making a journalistic impact and further develop VINUM. With the new editor-in-chief, we are confident that we will remain journalistically strong, well rooted on both a local and an international level, and perfectly set up for the future.’

Nicola Montemarano, CEO of the VINUM publishing house, reiterated: ‘With Nicolas Greinacher, VINUM gains an experienced wine journalist and digital expert who will provide valuable momentum for the further development of our brand.’

Short biography of Nicolas Greinacher

Born in Zurich in 1984, Nicolas Greinacher discovered his passion for wine whilst he was still at school, resulting in him completing his high school diploma essay on wines from the Lake Geneva region. After finishing high school, he took a year out to visit numerous wine regions, including spending three months in Adelaide, Australia. During his studies in business administration at the University of St. Gallen and in the years that followed, Greinacher spent his spare time writing about wine for a variety of different publications, including Weltwoche magazine. After a decade in international commodities and metal trading, he decided to shift his focus towards working in wine writing and moved to the Ringier media group in 2021. He was heavily involved in the development and success of Blick-Online’s wine section and also wrote for other Ringier media outlets such as Handelszeitung. Alongside this, Greinacher achieved all of the WSET levels and completed the Level 4 Diploma in Wine with distinction in less than a year. Antonio Galloni, Robert Parker’s former protégé, became aware of Greinacher in early 2023 and brought him on board as a permanent member of the Vinous critic team. In this role, he primarily assesses French wines from the Rhône Valley and Jura. Greinacher has been studying at the Institute of Masters of Wine since autumn 2024 and has already successfully passed the first of the three stages. Greinacher lives and works in Zurich.