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| Lunch with Frank Smulders MW & Pepi Schuller MW |
Perhaps for the first time wine connoisseurs, collectors and sommeliers from around the world will receive an in-depth education on the subject of the world’s finest and wines during the week, starting on October 31 at the hotel, announced Frank Smulders MW from Holland, working as a consultant for the project to the fine wine-centric hotel.
Helping the conducting of programme will be Dr. Josef (Pepi) Schuller MW, the first Master of Wine from Austria who was the previous Chairperson of the Institute of Master of Wine in London and heads the Academy in Rust, in which the Austrian Wine Marketing Board (AWMB) is a 50% partner.
Besides, there are four more MW who will guide the participants through the journey- Gerard Basset, Roman Horvath, Anthony Hanson and Serena Sutcliffe. Additionally, Olivier Krug, who heads the family business of the famous Champagne House in Reims and Dr. Hannes Schultz, heading the School of Viticulture in Geisenheim will talk of various aspects of fine wines and issues involved as a collector.
Basset, world’s champion Sommelier who owns a luxury boutique hotel Terravina in England, will talk about handling rare wines in the restaurants and conduct a guided tasting of a selected list of wines. He will also focus on pairing food with fine wines. There will be field trips to producers and tastings of top Rieslings and Gruener Veltliners. Subject of Fraud in fine wines will be an important topical feature.
The launch on May 28 started with a classy lunch in the recently re-opened gourmet restaurant under the stewardship of Chef Silvio Nickol. The delicious dishes all, were served in a rather aristocratic style with Riesling,
Blaufränkisch and Brachetto d’Acqui from Braida selected by the Sommelier and Cellarmaster Thomas Fassl. It was followed by a visit to the unique tasting of some of the old and rare vintage Bordeaux, Burgundies etc. This preceded a guided tasting of the well-known Austrian sweet wines ‘Kracher’ by the owner Gerhard Kracher.
Willi Klinger, Managing Director of Australian Wine Marketing Board, a 50% partner in the Austrian Wine Academy said that when he had learnt about fine wines decades ago, he used to get ample opportunities of tasting fine wines but today due to prohibitive costs of several First growth, many budding sommeliers and wine lovers cannot really afford to taste such superlative wines.
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| Palais Coburg Fine Wine Cellar |
The course will provide a never-before-opportunity to sommeliers and professionals who cannot afford to taste such expensive wines. A special subsidized price of around €1500 will be charged from them. A group will decide who may be allowed this benefit through the bursary.
The course can be extremely useful to the rich and super-rich in India and China and other countries, who have ambition to store and drink collectible wines. The existing collectors may find the course extremely intensive and useful too. The cost of € 5900 may be daunting for many, but there would be sufficient numbers globally to opt for the course. For details, please write directly to the co-organizer Frank Smulders MW at frank.smulders@palais-coburg.com
Subhash Arora |