Sensory lecture - Online tasting with Prof. Ulrich Fischer
Sensory lecture in a state of emergency
- Online tasting with Prof. Ulrich Fischer
Tasting wine and spitting it out professionally is a particularly sensitive exercise in times of the coronavirus crisis. The sensory laboratory at the Wine Campus Neustadt was therefore completely closed until mid-June. The originally planned lectures on wine sensory analysis could not be held in their previous form. Professor Ulrich Fischer reacted flexibly to the new circumstances and tried out a new form of knowledge transfer: The lecture was converted to an online format.
For each of the 15 lectures, 6 to 10 bottles of wine were filled into 30 ml jars from the analysis laboratory and provided to the students in a personalized box. After visiting the phytomedicine laboratory, the students took the boxes home and eagerly awaited the joint lecture via Zoom. The preparations for this type of tasting were a logistical challenge, in which the entire sensory team actively participated.
In terms of content, the wines tasted by the students ranged from sparkling wines to the specialties sherry, port and Madeira, variations of the Riesling terroir or autochthonous red wine varieties from all over the world, i.e. Carmenere, Pinotage or Lagrein.
Another highlight this year was the tasting of international sweet wines. It began with a comparison of residual sweet Rieslings in Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese quality from the Kaseler Nies'chen on the Ruwer, naturally from the same vintage and from the same producer, Karlsmühle. This is followed by a comparison of a Passito and Vin Santo sweet wine from Fatoria Vialla in Arezzo, i.e. specialties made from dried grapes. The contrast between a sweet wine concentrated with botrytis and a wine made from healthy grapes is illustrated by a Tokaj 6 Puttons wine from Hungary and a Blauer Sylvaner Eiswein from Rheinhessen. The highlight is the comparison of a 2015 Sauternes wine from Bordeaux with wood and a high alcohol content with the delicate 2007 Riesling Beerenauslese from Schloss Johannisberg itself.
