One thing that has impressed me about the wine industry is the number of wine related events. I’ve been to small ones with only a handful of winemakers and bigger ones with 100s of different brands. As part of my studies I got to visit one of the biggest ones – ProWein in Germany.
ProWein has exhibitors from all around the world, with anything from the biggest commercial brands to smaller independent ones. In addition to wine they also had some areas for beer and spirits. While I expected the fair to be big, I was still overwhelmed by the size. Luckily my friends and I had made some sort of a game-plan in advance.
While I did spend most of the time walking from stand to stand I did also attend some events. I got to do a crash-course in Canadian wines, with a selection of some of their finest wines. This included a sparkling Riesling as well as a red icewine. Another memorable event was a masterclass on dry wines from Tokaj – super interesting and delicious wines. Lastly we attended an amazing sake and food pairing, who knew it was a perfect match with foie gras and blue cheese!
As I am currently in the process of taking my WSET Level 3 in wine I attended a few of their seminars. The most interesting was one on how flavors in food impact the flavors in wine. We tried acidic, sweet, salty and savory flavors to see how they changed the same wine. They also had a seminar comparing Soave to other similar wines from other regions.
We did also spend quite some time in the spirits section. As a proud Norwegian I brought my friends to the various aquavit stands to get a small taste of home. We also got to try a range of Swedish whisky, even one aged in mulled wine casks. I also got to try proper pisco which I never had the opportunity to try before. Lastly we sampled cherry vodka from Belarus – from a big shot glass of course.
While it was an overwhelming experience, it was also a fantastic one. I learnt so much and tasted wines I had never even heard of before. I really hope I get to attend this kind of event again in the future.
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