We love the concept of continuous education, engaging in knowledge with fearless gusto, with great enthusiasm. We’ll show some of our own educational experiences and hope they encourage and inspire you to follow your own path in the world of wine and drinks.
2019
Madeira Wine Educator
From 8 to 12 July 2019, the Institute of Wine, Embroidery and crafts of Madeira, IVBAM, realized its first ever edition of the Madeira Wine Educator course.
In this first edition, 11 wine professionals from countries such as the Netherlands, China, Portugal, Spain, USA and Denmark, all of them with prominent wine resumes, participated in this advanced technical course to become a Certified Madeira Wine Educator. The course and the certificate are officially recognised by the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.
A year as a vinegrower
Understanding the growth cycle of the vine, or, how to produce a Riesling wine in Kremstal, Austria…
The vines need to be cared for and monitored throughout the year. Normally this is done by the wine producers, people who make a living from the winegrowing industry. I took on the role of the winegrower for one year to learn how the job is done, and what’s more, managed to absorb a lot of interesting facts about viticulture along the way.
The work in the vineyard ranges from planning the creation of a new vineyard, to cloning, pruning and training the vines in winter, attaching the shoots to encourage the bunches.
The time in spring is used to refine the pruning, tie up the vines, and to do some debudding, to remove the excess buds and unwanted shoots. In early summer the foliage is attended to. The ends of the branches are trimmed off to stimulate the vine to focus on producing fruit, and the vines deleafed (when necessary), which is done to encourage the grapes to mature and improve air flow.
For optimum maturity, the vinegrower can decide to remove excess bunches from some plants. This is called green harvest or in German “Grünen Ernte”, The vintage inspection and harvest are on the program in autumn. The harvest starts with picking the grapes to finally produce our own 2019 Riesling wine in the cellars.
2018
Taste power, or what wine tasting tells us about the brain of wine taster
Thesis for the title of Weinakademiker
The objective of this thesis is to explore the connection between the sensory experience of wine tasting and the experience and knowledge of the wine taster. Philosopher Gordon M. Shepherd argues that “taste itself is an illusion; the taste is not in the wine, taste is created by the brain of the wine taster. Assuming that flavor perception is constructed in the brain, what does this than tell us about the person who tastes? Is wine tasting more determined by the brain of the taster or more by the experience and knowledge of the taster within a given social, cultural and geographical context?
2017
