Editorial 1 Tribologie + Schmierungstechnik · volume 72 · issue 6/ 2025 DOI 10.24053/ TUS-2025-0028 There is a big difference amongst the German speaking population in Europe when it comes to wine patriotism. Unlike in Austria, Switzerland, or South Tyrol in Germany customers reach for the mass-produced Spanish or Italian wines because of far too little awareness of local quality. The share of German local wine consumption has dropped to 42 percent from 48 percent in 2013. The other reason why German viticulture is in the midst of a severe, for many winemakers even existential crisis, is that it has become fashionable to condemn wine as a neurotoxin and a life-destroyer; the World Health Organization even considers the smallest amounts of alcohol harmful and preaches complete abstinence. I remember well the comment of the German wine associations president 2 decades ago when he was faced with the statistics that per capita the annual wine consumption dropped to 26 liters, “what would he drink on January 27 th ”. In Germany, declining demand is not matched by a decreasing supply. Unlike France, Spain, and Italy, which have lost almost half their vineyards, the area under vine has remained constant at around 100,000 hectares for years. This stability is partly due to the fact that wine is not just another consumer good for its producers, which consist of many, for generations family-owned estates driven more by emotional than economic principles. There are other countries such as Japan, Canada, Great Britain, the Netherlands, and the United States, where wine consumption is increasing. However, Germany’s wine export has increased only 11 percent since 1990, while Chile’s have grown by 550 percent and New Zealand’s by a staggering 2,600 percent. Overall, global wine exports have doubled in the past 35 years, but Germany still plays a minor role and even ranks behind South Africa and Portugal in exports. The number of wineries in Germany marketing their own wine has declined by a fifth in the past ten years, according to estimates from the Geisenheim University of Applied Sciences. They predict that half of Germany’s winegrowers will have to give up within the next ten years, and a third of the total vineyard area can no longer be cultivated profitably. Geisenheim University’s research includes the entire value chain of specialty crops, including grapevines, fruits, vegetables, and ornamental plants. They have facilities (Free Air Carbon dioxide Enrichment) to enrich the carbon dioxide by 20 % to study the effects of the increased CO 2 content on vine physiology, berry substances and yield stability. The tribological aspects of wine were presented by Nick Spencer at the last GfT Conference. Wine consists of countless compounds, many of which have a characteristic taste or effect in the mouth - the so-called mouthfeel. Mouthfeel is primarily due to the interactions between wine and saliva, which affect friction and lubrication in the mouth and can be detected with tribometers. To answer the question from above: we don’t hope so! Drinking less but better wines which are produced locally have a better climate footprint. And even for wine one can find that Tribology is everywhere. Your editor-in-chief Manfred Jungk Cheap is the way to the end?