Essi Avellan MW - The Essence of Champagne
Saturday 02.04 | 13:00 - 15:00 | City Plaza Hotel
This year we will have the great pleasure of welcoming in our WineUp story one of the three members of the jury from the Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships: Master of Wine Essi Avellan from Finland. ”The Essence of Champagne” will be, by far, the most effervescent masterclass of WineUp 2016 and it will definitely imply a professional perspective on champagne at the highest standards.
Starting with a few essential benchmarks about the Champagne region and the unique product it offers, Essi Avellan will make an excursion into the mirage of champagne, with a comparative wine tasting of a selection of champagnes from the portfolio of our Moët Hennessy partners. It will be a detailed and dynamic analysis of blanc versions of brands such as Veuve Cliquot, Moët Chandon and Ruinart that will ”put into battle” their exclusive qualities. The debate regarding the best way in which the champagne needs to be tried, analysed and understood, as well as the tasting itself will be sustained and enhanced by the presence of a Master of Wine already famous, with an impressive background in the field.
Essi Avellan is Finland’s first Master of Wine and the second MW in the whole scandinavian region, with studies in the champagne/sparkling wine domain. (she is winner of the Lily Bollinger price for best taster and the Tim Derouet Memorial Award for her entire student activity). She is co-founder and editor at the Fine Magazine, the only magazine that has articles specialized exclusively in champagne. The first book she wrote is, of course, about champagne and it appeared in 2010 with the title Matka Champagneen. In 2013 she completely revised the third edition of Tom Stevenson’s Christie’s World Encyclopedia of Champagne & Sparkling Wine - a reference world guide of champagne and sparkling wine which was included by The Independent in the ”Top Ten World Wine Books”. Tom Stevenson says about Essi Avellan that she is the most talented and consistent taster that he ever encountered, even compared to himself. Essi Avellan has been awarded the title of Dame Chevalier of Ordre de Coteaux de Champagne and Commandeur of Commanderie de Bordeaux.