“Château” What’s in the name? In grote lijnen kan ik de wijncultuur in Libanon het best vergelijken met ons eigen Belgen landje. Ik verklaar mij nader… Al die recente wijndomeinen net zoals onze opkomende wijnbouwers zich laten inspireren door hun favoriete wijnregio’s en bij gevolg de daar aangeplante druivenvariëteiten over nemen. Bij ons zijn dat gelukkig voornamelijk noordelijke regio’s uit Frankrijk, Duitsland en Luxemburg, bij hen zijn dat de zuid Franse wijnregio’s daa

Libanon bezoeken intrigeerde mij al jaren en dit om twee redenen; Enerzijds omdat een bevriende proever van “Concours mondial de Bruxelles” Elie Maamari van Château Ksara, mij had verteld over de pracht van de Bekaa vallei en anderzijds omdat mijn vader tijdens zijn legerdienst er ooit aanmeerde met de “Kamina” van de Belgische zeemacht en zijn ervaring destijds omschreef als “Beirut, het Parijs van het Midden-Oosten!” (in 2017 zou ik in deze uitspraak Parijs wel vervangen m

Please allow me to introduce to you the Americas Vice President of the ASI (Association de la Sommellerie International) Argentinean top Sommelier Andres Rosberg!! All our Belgian readers might have already met or at least seen Andres as he was honorary judge during the ‘Best Sommelier of Belgium’ contest. Something that might surprise you (especially as Andres in not old) is that he was one of Argentina’s first professional sommeliers and also (co-)founder and president of

This time I’m taking you to Asia to meet our Malaysian top sommelier Roderick Wong. If I have to compare him to another sommelier I would say he’s the Malaysian Arunas Starkus as just like him Roderick creates and has created many opportunities for many people and opened many doors in Malaysia. Roderick has been active in the world of wine for many years now (since 1993 to be more precise). During these years he’s done it all wine importer, distributor, retailer, consultant,

That the job as sommelier is not valued as it should be in all countries is a known fact, but that some of those countries are that close to Belgium keeps surprising me (ok I know in Belgium we are very spoiled on lots of points). Luckily in all these countries there is always somebody who is willing to fight and do everything he/she can to get the right recognition. Not only for the job as sommelier, but for everything that has to do with wine in general. In Lithuania that

Portugal is (re)putting itself on the map both as wine country with wonderful wines (next to Port and Madeira) from Barraida, Douro, etc… but also as gastronomical country. I can say for a fact that last time I was in Portugal it was a true gastronomical odyssey!! One of the people that has done its part in the gastronomical part is the next sommelier I’m putting in the spotlight Rodolfo Tristão. Rodolfo is a classical trained at the ESHTE in Estoril, but over the years had t

I’m very glad to introduce to you yet again a very remarkable sommelier! This man is the founder of “Swesomm” (that if my Swedish is still up to date is the Swedish Sommelier Guild :-) ) , breeder of international TOP sommeliers as he was the coach of 2 winners of the ASI World Sommelier Championships (Andreas Larsson 2010 & Arvid Rosengren 2016) and a few European Champions. He’s also holder of the title of best Swedish Sommelier and sommelier of the year and an example to

I’ve already put lots of sommeliers in the spotlight, but it is far from over to put them in the spotlight… as there are many many more that I want to put in the spotlight. The reason I do this is because a sommelier’s role in a restaurant is as important as that from a chef as if one of both doesn’t do its task correctly the experience for the customer won’t be the same thing. The next sommelier I want to introduce to you is Ivo Dvořák from the Czech republic. Ivo is a class

Time for another lady sommelier :-) please allow me to introduce to you our next Swedish top sommelier Karina Tholina Karina is Freelance sommelier , Educator in Wines & gastronomy and since 2013 president of the Swedish Sommelier association. She also is a true inspiration for lots of women as of all the members of the Swedish Sommelier Association more then the half of them are women!! I personally cannot support this enough!! Karina's love for wine or maybe it is better to

Please let me introduce to you Jean-Vincent RIDON who is a great example that if you want to achieve something you can :-) Jean-Vincent isn't a classic trained sommelier who went to Hotel management school, but studied at law school and eventually political science. But if you have it in you, you can try to run and ignore it for a while, but sooner of later.... After years as successful businessman in France jean's love for wine started growing and decided to open a Wine bar