Be sure to tweet, was the first message given at the opening of a four-day symposium organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine. Some 450 participants from 32 countries travelled to Florence in May to take part in panel discussions, tastings and other events featuring influential people from the wine world.
One of the great benefits of attending an MW event is the calibre of the speakers and audience they can attract: In one panel, Annette Alvarez-Peters of the USʼs Costco explained the inner workings of the famous worldwide members-only store that delivers some of the lowest prices for wine. The panel focused on how best to serve the wine consumer and included industry reps such as the charismatic Willi Klinger of the Austrian Wine Marketing Board.
In another panel on viticulture research, scientists like Dr Hans Reiner Schultz of Geisenheim University informed participants – who each paid over €1,000.00 ($1,363.00) to attend the symposium – of latest research on dealing with soil temperature increases coming from climate change or lab experiments with radiation to reduce grape pathogens as opposed to the use of chemical treatments.
The value of the MW
Rich in content, wide in scope – including tastings by top winemakers like Bill Harlan of Harlan Estate, Stephen Henschke of Henschke, Giovanni Geddes de Filicaja of Tenuta dell’ Ornellaia and Anne-Claude Leflaive of Domaine Leflaive – the symposium tried to drive the point that the MW is the ultimate wine-vetting vehicle across the industry: all the more important in an age of instant wine experts with thousands of Twitter followers or Facebook friends posting hash-tag-ridden texts.
In the wine communication panel, Jancis Robinson MW spoke of the importance of renewing her website to stay relevant online. In spite of her fame as the Financial Times wine writer and long-time wine author and critic, she remarked that only 5.5% of her readers are under 30 and most are wealthy men in their 40s and 50s (according to a 2010 survey). She spoke of introducing new applications to garner more interest among younger wine lovers and to promote interactive communication.
Ironically, when Sarah Jane Evans MW, who led the opening panel on ‘Wine Communication: Reaching Tomorrow’s Audiences’, called on participants to use social media, it turned out the WiFi connection wasn’t working. Although blamed on a bad connection (which was later fixed), it seemed to reflect what MW institute chairman Jean-Michel Valette MW called the Institute’s “shy gene”.
Valette, who is French–German but lives in California and is chairman of the US-based Internet wine retailer Vinfolio, acknowledges the somewhat elitist image of MWs. “Some people think we are here to give people fancy titles or letters,” he said. “But that is not what we represent; MWs include all wine-related professions, be they educators, journalists, scientists or merchants.”
He stressed the increasingly practical interest in obtaining an MW, taking the example of the as yet only Greek MW, Konstantinos Lazarakis, a wine importer, educator and tour organiser based in Athens who attended the symposium. “If I need to find an importer in Greece, I can call Konstantinos and find out about the best wines from the best source,” Valette said.
Recent MWs like Lazarakis personify an emerging image change from the traditionally UK-based MW institute, which was created in London a few years after the end of the Second World War to promote the wine trade. Although most (about 60%) of the 313 current MWs reside in the UK, two-thirds of the some 300 MW candidates do not.
As the wine world grows with more people entering the trade, the MW degree confers immediate credibility. Real estate broker and part-time sommelier Pedro Brillembourg of Caracas, Venezuela, for example, plans to import wine to South America. “I want to obtain the diploma, because it would help me in my career path,” he said.
Work to do in communicating
Valette acknowledged that the institute has lagged behind in raising its international profile. For the first time the symposium featured a tasting of wines made by some 20 MWs from Australia to Germany, to illustrate the wide variety of work that an MW degree can lead to. It was also the first time that the symposium was held in Italy.
“For both [of these facts], I would ask ‘what took us so long?’” Valette remarked.
Evans – who soon will replace Valette as institute chair – spoke of plans to organise smaller events around the world, such as master class style tastings, “so we do not have to just wait every four years [for the symposium]”.
“Our exam is not there to create an elite,” Valette said. “It is really there to test for the attributes that we think help define somebody who can promote in his or her very unique way those aspirational elements of excellence in interaction and learning – that’s what will make the wine world stronger across borders.”
