Archive for May, 2009
We need more Australian Master Sommeliers!
Did you know, that there is a Master title for Sommeliers? To tell you the truth: before I joined the Sommeliers Australia Association, I had no idea that such a title existed. There are about 160 Master Sommeliers worldwide as of today, and while a couple of Australians have achieved the title offshore, none are actively working in this country.
I was just a few years old when in 1969 the Court of Master Sommeliers conducted their first examinations in the United Kingdom and exactly ten years later a US chapter was formed. It took up to the year 2008 for Australia to provide an Introductory Level to the first students here Down Under and these exams were passed by an impressive 90%.
On you way to become a Master Sommerlier there are three grades for Sommeliers to prove their knowledge to an independent panel of judges. The two day classes include a lot of theory but also practical skills; tasting, service and salesmanship.
In September these intensive two day Introductory Certificate and Examinations will be held both in Sydney and Melbourne, with only fifty places at each available to Sommeliers throughout Australia. Although typically there is a requirement for a year’s gap between Levels One and Two, thirty of the top passing students in each city will be offered the chance to take the Certified Exams on the third day.
Once you have achieved the title of Certified Sommelier you have completed the first steps towards becoming a Master Sommelier: this is the ultimate accreditation offered by the Court -the real thing as you then are one of the few globally recognised professional sommeliers.
And here are the training courses and related exam dates for Melbourne and Sydney this year:
Melbourne: Introductory Sommelier Course & Exam – Thursday 17- Friday 18 September | Certified Sommelier Examination – Saturday 19 Sep
Sydney: Introductory Sommelier Course & Exam – Tuesday 22 – Wednesday 23 September | Certified Sommelier Examination – Thursday 24 September
Good luck to all those who will give it a go.
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Neben dem weltweit bekannten Master of Wine gibt es fuer die Sommeliers einen Master Sommelier Titel, der bislang ca. 160 Mal weltweit vergeben wurde. Im September finden Ausbildung und Tests in den Staedten Melbourne und Sydney statt, so dass wir hoffentlich bald mehr als die bislang zwei australischen Master Sommeliers aufweisen koennen.
Michael Brecht
Wine Sommeliers – here I come
I became a member of Sommeliers Australia today. A friend of mine explained to me the value of being a member last night and here I come: $150 later and I can count myself ‘Professional Member’ for the next 12 months (and if I wish I can stay longer).
Sommeliers in Australia
Sommeliers Australia is, as you might have guessed, the national body for all Sommeliers here Down Under. And to make one thing clear from the very beginning: I am not planning to change jobs or even invite you to my restaurant, where I would pair with the chef de maison and suggest wine, that might best go along the choice of food you would have chosen. Relax, I won’t go there. I’d rather sit on the other side and have someone knowledgeable point out the right wines to me.
And this is what it is all about. I joint Sommeliers Australia as I wanted to learn how Australian Sommeliers are prepared for the tough jobs in the country’s restaurants and bars. Have a white wine with fish or a red to go with your meat is simply not good enough any more.
On their website I learned already that the association sees its role ‘to act as a hub for a broad cross section of industry including wine and beverage production, hospitality suppliers, and all interested parties.’ I guess the qualifications and trainings for these Sommeliers can be really useful for anybody interested in wine. And these events will also be a great place to meet some of the best wine experts in this great country. I will keep you updated.
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Seit ungefaehr 30 Minuten bin ich Mitglied in der Vereinigung der Sommeliers Australia, einer Organisation die sich um das Wohl und die Aus- und Weiterbildung von Sommerliers hier Down Under kuemmert. Ich bin gespannt, wie ein nicht-Sommelier wie ich in deren Bildungskonzepte passe und werde umgehend weiter darueber berichten.
Michael Brecht
Baby you can drive the car tonight – limousine services in the Yarra Valley
In all of the Australian wine regions entrepreneurs have started offering services around the main topic: wine – organised wine tours, cellar door and vineyard walks, candlelight dinners, concerts in the vineyard or meet the winemaker events to just name a few.
We thought we have a look at one of the services, mainly provided in the bigger wine regions: so called limousine services. The idea came to us while tweeting with ‘babyyoucandrive‘ – or Sandy the other day. We loved the name of her twitter ID so much, that we initiated this interview. Sandy owns Driven Indulgence, a limousine service operating in the Victorian Yarra Valley though her real home is a few hours away in one of our preferred wine regions, in Beechworth.
downunderwines: Hi Sandy, thanks for your time today. My first question is about your location: you are based in Beechworth but work in the Yarra Valley, tell us how this works?
Sandy: Beechworth is where my home is, but I am currently staying with family in the Yarra Valley while I build my new tour business. I am working and living between the two gorgeous regions and will be offering tours in both areas. Sort of a cross pollination between the two. The wine industry created a strong link if you like between the two areas for me, working in and around the industry for 20 years or so in one capacity or another.
Girls night out
downunderwines: You have started a Limousine services business – let us start with my question of how you came up with the name for it?
Sandy: Driven Indulgence was arrived at after a session with pen and paper isolating what it is that the business does. I also love the idea of not having the word tour or Yarra Valley or wine, because it can be about so much more, which is my intention to make it a fun flexible alternative to taxis, bus tours and the like. A little bit of class, my guests love having ‘their own driver’.
Indulgence – indeed! The business has become a handy alternative to waiting for a taxi for locals when they have important functions or appointments at hospitals, functions, parties, a night out with the girls and the like.
downunderwines: Please forgive me for asking this question: driving as a chauffeur and being a woman: how do your clients react when they see you turn up in their driveway?
Sandy: That is so funny, I must say, it is never a problem in my mind and I feel that my guests pick up on that. I have always had favourable comments re. my girl driving. It’s the fiance’s, wives and girlfriends that comment first; ‘you are lucky, I am not allowed to drive this’ then a little voice pipes up from the back seat usually, with some comment along the lines of ‘but she doesn’t … like you’.
I must admit, I used to be a natural blonde, so the hair had to go so as not to cop the good humour of my guests all day about being ‘a blonde women driver!’
No I think the focus is so much on showing my guests a good time and the very best the valley has to offer, that the female driver doesn’t seem to come into it much. Of course I love the humour and innuendo, it’s Aussie tradition! No offense taken.
downunderwines: OK, now give us a good story with some of your guests please:
Sandy: Last week we had a gorgeous young couple staying with Gracedale Accommodation, Amy and Alex, they wanted to see the background, the things going on behind the scenes, not just cellar doors however great they are. I took them to see Sticks Winery in Yarra Glen. They were blown away, Tom the winemaker showed them around and they enjoyed some of the intricate explanations of the wine making process while being shown the equipment and barrel room and of course tastings at cellar door. Yileena Park Winery opened up especially for them at around 6pm, Bob showed us all about his wines and a few pointers on opening up a red, sharing his genuine country hospitality and intimate wine knowledge. When we returned to Gracedale, Jenny was like a mother hen, ‘where have you been are you ok?’ We just got lost in our awesome day in the valley, relaxed, took some photos, shared stories and had a ball. Alex a confirmed spirits drinker was now a wine connoisseur, he amazed Amy and myself with his intense questions to the wine staff and I think we will be hearing from him soon with his spirit drinking friends on a conversion tour!
I had hired a Chrysler for the day to do a photo shoot in the morning to get a couple of shots for my marketing, so we did it in style, all that was missing was the cigars! They had the back seat – holding hands thing going on, it was great. Amy got a new man, Alex got a mature adult wine tasting side to his life and I got to see it all happen!
your dedicated driver
downunderwines: Sounds like fun, so did you drive any celebrities lately?
Sandy: All my guests are celebrities! None to report so far. Although I drove the local limo company Affinity Limo owners Andy and Tanya to a party last weekend in their extreme black Chrysler. That would be local identities yeh? We wore our sunglasses in the dark (no we didn’t)… and Tanya exited the party with her shoes on the end of her finger in the air, climbed into the warm cabin all happy ready for home, we hooked back to Yarra Glen gliding through the streets of Lilydale at 1 in the morning with the chatter full of anticipation for both of our businesses growing, arrrrr, nice, like a dream.
downunderwines: And while not behind the steering wheel, what is your favourite drop?
Sandy: I love wine, I love the random surprises you get, I love labels and packaging, but mostly a wine with good length and body, clean fruit driven and a little barrel age not so you are chewing through the tannins and oak though. Two of my favourite whites at the moment in the Yarra Valley are the Yileena Park 2006 Chardonnay and the 08 Sauvignon Blanc from Punt Road wines which is no longer available through cellar door, but I know Barrique Wine Store in Healesville has snaffled a few cases. Also the Pinot Gris from the Innocent Bystander, another easy drinking fav. of mine. I also discovered a Pinot at Wedgetail Winery in Cottles Bridge that is amazing. I love finding a wine that somehow I have had a part in developing at some stage, whether it was planting the vines back in the late 90′s early 2000′s or cellar hand or working on the pruning, harvest or other related facets of maintenance in the vineyard. One of my girlfriends and I have fizz nights in Eldorado near Wangaratta, that usually consists of an undisclosable number of bottles, hours of conversation and laughter followed by a gruelling “….I’m ok.” recovery day.
Well here we have a female chauffeur with a great depth of knowledge on the local wines in the Yarra Valley. Best of luck for your new business and we hope that you’ll keep us in the loop with some nice stories of what happens in the valley. Thanks Sandy.
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In vielen der hiesigen Weintaeler werden sog. Limousine Services angeboten, haeufig in stretched Limos, mit dunklen Scheiben und kraeftigen Fahrern, die Sonnenbrille tragen. Unser Interview haben wir mit Sandy gefuehrt, einer jungen Dame aus Beechworth, die diesen Limousinenservice vor wenigen Wochen begann. Sie wird uns hoffentlich in den naechsten Monaten mit weiteren Geschichten aus ihrer Limousine versorgen.
Michael Brecht
Cuttaway Hill Estate – cool climate Pinots from the Southern Highlands
Its been a while since I tried Cuttaway Hill Estate – one of the larger wine growers in the Southern Highlands. This is a winery which grows its grapes across the Highlands, has them processed and bottled in the Hunter Valley and unfortunately sells only through bottle shops – hence has no own cellar door.
Cuttaway Hill Pinot Noir
This is such a shame, as the Cuttaway Hill wines receive awards across the country – latest example is the five star ranking of its 2006 Chardonnay in Winestate Magazine (March/April edition).
Trying their 2007 Pinot Noir last night showed, how far the top Pinot producers in this region have come: soft berry and plum aromas, rich fruit characters and a nice finish – quite long for a Pinot Noir. I am so much more into these Australian Pinots this year than the – in my opinion – overrated and overpriced Pinots from New Zealand. Sorry my kiwi friends, I think that Australian Pinots have really caught up and in some cases overtaken you in this variety.
By the way: the new labels work wonder for Cuttaway Hill – I am sure that many wine buyers appreciate a real good label when purchasing new wines.
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Ich probierte den 2007 Cuttaway Hill Estate – einer der top-Pinot Produzenten der Southern Highlands. Ein sehr schoener Wein, der zeigt, wie weit diese junge Weinregion inzwischen mit Pinots gekommen ist.
Michael Brecht
Good news from the taxman for wineries Down Under
Well – this was a close call. I am sure that on the evening after the release of the budget many if not all winemakers in Australia opened a nice bottle of their best wine or sparkling to celebrate the budget outcome for them.
The Federal Government has decided last Tuesday to not implement rumoured changes to wine sales taxes in the budget. The reason is clear: Australia’s wine industry faces the toughest conditions in the last decades – to put more pressure on this industry would have been really tough. That’s why the CEO of Winemakers Federation of Australia Stephen Strachan released a press statement the day after the release, explaining how satisfied he and his fellow colleagues are about this successful way of lobbying in Canberra.
“Given the pressure they were under it would have been easy to fall back on the old mainstay of hitting predictable targets to raise money without considering the logic of such a move or the long-term consequences,” he said.
Australia’s wine taxes already are among the highest in the world, the effect of further burden would have had disastrous consequences for the wine industry here in Australia. With the bottling in many Australian wineries in full progress, there is good news from the tax front this week.
Understanding Wine in Adelaide
In the first 25 years of my life I belonged to those people who could make distinctions between wines by only one characteristic: red or white! But moving from Munich to Adelaide marked a big change in my life. The city is argued to be Australia‘s hot spot for viticulture.
National Wine Centre in Adelaide
I am surrounded by people who devote their lifes to that industry and there was just no way around it: I had to start understanding wine!
Too easy. One particular outstanding characteristic of Australians is their open-minded attitude towards those, who would like to try something new. So a few weeks after my arrival, I found myself sitting in front of six glasses trying to figure out different taste sensations in the ‘Understanding Wine Course’ at the National Wine Center.
Besides a lot of basic information on wine making the main benefit from this course was learning how to build up a taste memory. Immediately after tasting, we were encouraged to talk about it as much as possible using the most creative expressions. Associating wine with any other taste than grapes and alcohol first appeared strange to me, but it actually works! I started to smell the pepper in the Shiraz, the peach in Chardonnay, the passion fruit in Sauvignon Blanc and many more associations (some strange ones, too! I did not think of vegemite before when having a glass of sparkling wine?)
Since this breakthrough my taste buds have woken up. No opportunity is left out to taste more. You could call it an addiction – but certainly in a good sense. And as appreciating wine is so much about the particular experience, it is also a great way of discovering and getting to know South Australia and its‘ people.
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Neu in Adelaide und keine Ahnung von Wein! So ging es mir bei meiner Ankunft in der australischen Weinhauptstadt. Aber so konnte es nicht bleiben. Der Kurs Understanding Wine im National Wine Center erklärt Wein-Neulingen nicht nur, wie und wo Wein gemacht wird. Worauf es hauptsächlich ankommt, ist der systematische Aufbau eines Geschmacksgedächtnisses. Der Kreativität beim Beschreiben aller möglichen Assoziationen ist dabei keine Grenze gesetzt.
Seit ich wortwörtlich auf den Geschmack gekommen bin, lasse ich keine Gelegenheit zum Probieren mehr aus. Das beinhaltet gleichzeitig die Chance, Land und Leute in South Australia intensiv kennen zu lernen, da Wein nun mal untrennbar mit seiner Herkunft verbunden ist.
Is the new budget the end for small wineries in Australia?
We have seen increased activity from many lobbying groups in the past weeks – all fearing that their respective businesses might have to bear a heavy load when the federal government presents the new budget for Australia today.
The Winemakers’ Federation made their position clear: a change to the taxation rules to bring it into line with other alcoholic drinks could raise an extra $630 million for the Government, but at the cost of 5,300 mostly rural jobs. The fear is that wine, which is now taxed under the wine equalisation tax (WET) – a 29 per cent tax on the wholesale value of the product – would have to be started to be taxed based on its alcohol content. That would bring it in line with the taxation of beer and spirits here Down Under.
The WET is aimed at providing a protection for the mostly smaller wine producers throughout Australia. Most of them already struggle to cope with the current wine glut in global wine markets, for them such a decision tonight would be devastating.
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Heute wird in Australien das neue Jahresbudget praesentiert; jenes ist heiss erwartet, denn die Wirtschaftssituation hier Down Under ist so schlecht wie seit mehr als 60 Jahren nicht mehr. Ein besonderes Risiko besteht fuer die kleineren Winzer, die bislang ihre Weine anders besteuert bekommen, als die Bier oder Spirituosenhersteller. Wir halten Sie auf dem Laufenden.
Michael Brecht
Happy Mother’s Day
Tasmanian Sparkling for Mother's Day
It is Mother’s Day in Australia and millions of mums were treated with breakfast in bed or taken out for lunch today. My wife’s treat was an extensive brunch hosted by our children with lots of presents usually prepared in school or in the early hours of this morning.
Tonight we will open a nice bottle of Australian Sparkling – which reminds me of a great saying by Napoleon Bonaparte about Champagne:
“I drink Champagne when I win, to celebrate … and I drink Champagne when I lose, to console myself.”
Well, the reason today is a special one: cheers to all the mums, whether in Australia or somewhere else in this world.
Michael Brecht
