Wine seminar series - Kitakyushu

Wine courses

A series of 4 seminars of 1h30.
8 personnes maximum.

Presented by Vincent Schmitt
(Doctor in Science, Masters in Maths ENS-ULM, Grande École Arts et Métiers Paris)
Director and trader for Vins Fins Motohama.

Vincent will share with you his knowledge and experience as a wine buyer. He will lead seminars organized as interactive lectures with material and tasting.

Price: About 6000-7000yens per course.

Subject: French wine.

Pre-requisistes: None but some interest for top quality wine.

Public: Newbies, connoisseurs or professionals.

Lieu: Kitakyushu.

Dates: TBA.

Goals:
To get a solid knowledge about french wines regarding:
- technical aspects,
- oenology,
- culture,
- history,
- economy,
- marketing...
while tasting great wines.

This basic knowledge will serve you as guidelines for further tasting, for selecting wines and to learn much more by yourself.

You will increase your pleasure with wines. You will optimize your tasting sessions that will become more interesting and intellectual experiences.

To become yourself a "wine guru" from that point, you will just need to taste more...

Objectives.
After these courses, you will have:

- A sound general knowledge about french wine. In particular you will learn about classical
Burgundy and Bordeaux "appelations". You will taste these.

- Good oenology basis. You will learn in details elaboration processes for red and white wines,
and parameters impacting the final quality of wines:  terroirs/climats, vintages, diverse
wine making practices (soil and vine work, harvest, vinification, maturation in barrel, cellar, bottling), transport, cellaring and...  service.

- Precise ideas about curent winemaking/marketing trends: Bio wines (Ecocert), Bio-dynamy (Demeter), natural, classical, modern, technological wines, ...

- A right picture of Mondovino: taylor-made wines, industrial wines, appelations, brands, networks, guides, critics, importers...

You will be able to:

- Evaluate the quality of a wine and recognise after tasting -- at least roughly -- its origin, age, and potential for keeping.

- Recognize and identify typical aromas for red and white wines and know about their origins: grape variety, terroirs, fermentation, type of vinification, barrel, corrections, artefacts, defaults... You will  distinguish between fine and vulgar aromas, and wine defaults.

Seminar schedule (provisional)

Course 1. Bordeaux vs Burgundy.

Introductory course.
Wine history, culture and tradition in France.
Review of the different wines & wine regions in France.
Comparison between Bordeaux & Burgundy: wines & wine making industries.
Mondovino. 

Course 2. About wine aromas.

Technical course: What is a "grand vin"?
The elaboration processes for red and white wines.
Wine ageing.
Wine aromas: their classification and origins.

Course 3. Taylor-made vs. industrial wines.

What do "technological", "bio", "natural", "bio-dynamic", "terroir" mean for wines?
Are these concepts relevant or mere commercial slogans?
Good and bad pratices for wine making.
The wine market worldwide.

Course 4.  The terroirs of Burgundy

Geology. The concept of "climat".
Wine classification: Gevrey-Chambertin as an example.
The M-word: "Minerality" tastes for white wines.