Kumeu River Winery near Auckland

 

Kumeu River winery visitor entrance.

The knowledgeable master of wine, with his delightful mother.

The laboratory.  

From Croatia to Kumeu River, this family-owned business is a big success story. 

Croatians emigrated for a better life in the 1930s, to the USA and New Zealand. Here in New Zealand they did hard work digging for gum in buried trees.

Later they bought land, and grew wines. 

We met a member of the family who has the prestigious qualification of Master of Wine. His mother takes a keen interest in meeting and greeting visitors

He showed us square metal tanks which I had never seen anwhere before, although he assured us that some can be found in France. 

He jovially told us that 'square tanks make an efficient use of space, but want to turn themselves into round or barrel-shaped tanks!' So square tanks have to be reinforced.

As the saying goes, you learn something new every day.

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Technical stuff - what those in the trade know about wines they are selling you

Problem
If you stop at a cellar door, often the seller's family are offering tastings and know about their own wines, which they are promoting. But how much do people in supermarkets and wine shops worldwide know about what they are selling?

Answer
A surprising amount. The big supermarket chain will usually have a Master of Wine somewhere in their organization. Staff further down will have taken and be taking other exams.

My husband just did the diploma. As you rise up the ranks of the exams, the time taken increases, the number of exams you have to take increases, and the numbers of people who are in the trade increases.

If you want to take a course in wine-tasting, you'll find groups for taking exams, and groups just for fun, all over the world.

WSET run courses in the UK and several countries. The French have sommelier courses in French.

In London you can go to dinners and tastings, exam courses run by WSET, and tutorials, dinners, tastings and by Berry Brothers and Rudd who have a shop near Picccadilly and historic cellars for their wine tasting events.

grapedeal.com/the-wset-diploma

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker