Announcing the participants – The Family of Twelve Wine Tutorial 2020.
“Boldly the Family steps up again to nurture those representing New Zealand’s fine wine industry” Family Chair Paul Donaldson.
We’re thrilled to announce the twelve wine professionals selected as The Family of Twelve Wine Tutorial participants for 2020.
We’ve had to postpone the 2020 tutorial, but this won’t stop us from engaging with this year’s participants. Through a series of virtual blind-tasting workshops we’ll showcase the Family’s best with a few fine international wines to challenge their palates.
From an impressive field of applicants, we have a cohort of passionate and energised participants. In keeping with the Family’s mission to take our story to the wine-world this year’s participants all hail from cities known for the cosmopolitanism and dynamism of their wine appreciation. Comprising of sommeliers, educators and wine merchants we’re thrilled to name four participants from Sydney, three from Melbourne, and one each from Hong Kong, Shanghai, Auckland, Wellington and Queenstown.
Please see http://familyoftwelve.co.nz/wine-tutorial-class-of-2020/ for the full participant list.
For the virtual tastings we’ll be shipping wines to the participants who’ll gather in small groups, by city, to taste simultaneously with our winemakers who’ll have the same wines at home in NZ. We’re kicking off with tastings in Wellington, Sydney and Auckland. Early in 2021 we’ll do the same for Melbourne, Shanghai and Hong Kong.
As a producer of quality wine, selling at enviable prices, New Zealand relies on our future leaders and ambassadors to sustain this momentum in a personal way – congratulations to this year’s participants!
The participants will be tutored by Family winemakers once again led by Blair Walter of Felton Road who says “This will be another exciting learning opportunity for the twelve successful wine industry participants. The workshops will be compelling events allowing our winemakers to impart their knowledge, stories and experience.”
“We hope these workshops will be challenging but hugely enjoyable. Serious fun is a family motto” says Paul Donaldson, Family Chair.
Our Kiwi wine industry needs both excellence in marketing and distribution. But it also needs our gatekeepers to be valued and encouraged. The workshops are a way of expressing our gratitude to those who are the face of our industry as they engage with wine lovers and educate fellow wine professionals. They are our ambassadors and we hope these workshops will help develop the skills of those showing potential to take New Zealand wine’s message of diversity and character to the world.
The Family is known for innovation – we developed the Wine Tutorial 3 years ago hence our commitment to education is marking a path for the future.
About the Tutorial
The Family of Twelve Wine Tutorial is an immersive residential seminar held over two working days and three nights. The date for the third tutorial is yet to be confirmed but will be held at a Family winery in New Zealand. Each tutorial is held in a different Family location and is open globally to those working with New Zealand wine, in the areas of sommelier, wine retailer, wine educator or wine media.
Comprising of tasting workshops during the day followed by dinners with wine options and speakers, the tutorial challenges participants in the way they approach wine appraisal and communicating their thoughts about wine. Participants are pushed to the limit, learning and tasting in an intensive environment.
The tastings feature a wide selection of Family wines presented alongside benchmark examples of wine from many of the world’s great wine estates and regions.
“I think this is a truly special and valuable tutorial which, if nurtured, could turn into a global institution” Stephen Wong Master of Wine speaking after attending the 2019 tutorial as external moderator.
About The Family of Twelve
Twelve exceptional New Zealand wineries, eight wine regions, celebrating fine wine and friendship. Our members are scattered the length and breadth of New Zealand but we come together to celebrate our successes, share our stories and knowledge. We also share a desire to create extraordinary wine. We’re New Zealand’s wine family, The Family of Twelve.
Founded in 2005, our vision is to nurture long term relationships with an emphasis on education. Our wines are as diverse as the flora and fauna of New Zealand – and so are we. We all have different stories to tell but with similar threads running through them – of travelling the world, pioneering something new and letting the land speak for itself to help deliver the very best of what wine can be.
Some family trees have legacies reaching through the centuries. Many are nuclear. A few are royal. Not this one – far from conventional, this is a family of wine families.
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