Oenology (the study of wine tasting) is a key component of the hospitality education that we provide to our students.

We are lucky that we have many lecturers who are experts in the field; however, we also like to invite specialists from specific regions to come and share their knowledge as well.

One regular visitor to campus is the Austrian Wine society, whose mission is to promote the many exciting varietals produced in the country as well as educating people on the history and culture surrounding the Austrian wine industry.

At a specially held masterclass in our Swiss Room restaurant, Hans Babits from the society talked our students through the “seven elements of excitement” – the key factors that come together to produce the country’s distinct wine flavours.

Of course, there was also plenty of time to taste the wines and our young future oenologists had the chance to try and identify grape varieties based on flavour, appearance and texture.

Organiser of the masterclass, IMI’s Lilla Fulop, was very pleased with how it went.

“I believe that these tasting sessions are a vital aspect of learning about wine and I was really impressed by how engaged our students were, asking questions, taking notes and learning all about food pairings,” she said.

Kenyan student Leah also really appreciated the session, commenting: “it was really useful and enjoyable and I learnt a lot about the different varieties and the wine making process in Austria."

"I really appreciated how interactive the session was as well," she added.

We would like to thank Hans for his visit and sharing his in-depth knowledge of Austrian wines with our students. Ein Prost!