Christine Mayr asked me last year to develop a one-day course for the Accademia del Vino Alto Adige in Caldero, Italy to help non-native English-speaking wine professionals polish their English for the wine trade. Participants would be predominantly employees of local wineries: oenologists, viticulturists, export managers, tasting room directors, sales people, and sommeliers. After gaining advice from wine educators Richard Bampfield MW of the UK and Marianne Frantz in the US, I was able to design a course. It hasn’t been an easy task due to the different levels of English knowledge, different needs in the trade, and last but now least, three hours is not a lot of time. What I have come up with is what influences how the wine in our glass tastes and how to describe the wine in the glass. We go through the very basics of climate, soil, grape varieties, viticulture, winemaking and sensory evaluation of eight wines. The couse has been tailored specifically to the Alto Adige wine region in northern Italy. The feedback has been good, Christine keeps inviting me back and the nuber of participants is growing, so I hope that people are finding it useful. I certainly enjoy going to the region. the people are friendly, there are very interesting wines there, and as you can see by these short videos, it is a gorgeous region.
Blue skies, snow capped mountains, lakes glistening in the sun, vines, and blooming apple trees – how lucky I am to be here on such a glorious spring day.
Filmed at the very recommendable Manincor Estate in Caldero.