Michael Schuster | Tasting School

Tasting School

Bordeaux Index is delighted to announce that from September 2008, Michael Schuster will be moving his famous wine school to our offices in Hatton Garden. Michael has helped to design the specialist tasting facilities on the top floor of our new building, where his school will be run from.

Jancis Robinson MW recently commented that "we have long recommended Michael Schuster's wine courses as the best we know in London."...

Michael Schuster is acknowledged internationally as an expert wine taster, wine writer and wine teacher with over 25 years experience. He studied tasting in Bordeaux, where he gained the University Tasting Diploma, and in the early eighties he was instrumental in creating an award-winning wine retail business. Since 1986 he has worked independently as a writer and lecturer, and has run his own wine school in north London. He is a regular contributor to The World of Fine Wine, writing their annual Bordeaux en primeur report, an occasional contributor to Decanter, and his highly praised book, Essential Winetasting (Mitchell Beazley), won all three major wine book prizes in the UK in 2001. It was described by Bill Nesto MW (Beverage Business USA) as "The most effective winetasting manual ever written.", and as "explaining the mechanics of taste and tasting better than any book I've seen." (Richard Ehrlich, The Independent on Sunday).

Bordeaux Index staff are regulars at Michael’s courses, and we cannot recommend them highly enough. There is something for everybody here, from the Beginners Course right through to more specific tastings, such as 2000 Left Bank Bordeaux.

Please find below details of Michael's Autumn tasting programme - to book please contact Michael directly on michael@schuster.f9.co.uk, or through his website www.michaelschusterwine.com

  • Beginners Course
  • The Fine Wine Course
  • Left Bank Claret 1
  • Left Bank Claret 2
  • 1991, 1992, 1994 Vintage Port
  • Egon Muller’s Scharzhofberg
  • Fine Wine Pairs 1
  • Fine Wine Pairs 2 (Christmas)


    • PROGRAMME: Sept - Dec 2008

    *** WINE COURSES ***

    For full details see www.michaelschusterwine.com

    "Over the years I have had more positive feedback about Michael Schuster's wine courses than any others. He seems to be the perfect teacher." Joanna Simon, The Sunday Times

    SIX EVENING BEGINNERS COURSE ..... £255
    Mondays: Sept: 1, 8, 15, 22, 29; Oct 6. Time: 6.30 - 8.30 / 9.00pm
    THE BEGINNERS COURSE is an introduction to basic tasting technique, covering the world's major grape varieties and their varying styles from the principal wine producing countries. It illustrates what to expect from different types of wine, which qualities to look for, how to describe them, & combining wine with food. It aims, in particular, to help you describe and appreciate different styles of wine, to perceive and articulate differences in quality, and to make up your own mind what you like. 40 wines are tasted, with prices ranging £4 to £25; the average being £7-9 a bottle.


    SIX EVENING FINE WINE COURSE ..... £375
    Tuesdays Nov: 4, 11, 18, 25; Dec: 2, 9. Time: 6.30 - 8.30 / 9.00pm
    THE FINE WINE COURSE covers more advanced tasting technique, quality assessment and notemaking, based on the classic wines and wine regions of France. It differs from the Beginners Course in that its subject matter is narrower and can be explored at much greater depth; and because its best wines are much more expensive. The average price-range across the course is £8 to £80+ a bottle. A fact sheet & map are provided for each region, & 8-10 wines are tasted on each occasion, illustrating a range of styles, a quality cross section, and France's terroir concept.
    The course is unusual in that, along with young examples, we show fully mature wines. These wines are increasingly rare and sought after in today's market place. Seeing what they have to offer, how they develop with bottle age, and why one bothers to keep them, are fundamental to the appreciation and enjoyment of fine wine.

    Some of the fine, mature bottles that have figured in the Fine Wine Course recently:

    Evening 1: 90 Dom Perignon, 96 Perrier-Jouet Belle Epoque; 85 Riesling Fréd. Emile (Trimbach).
    Evening 2: 01 Pouilly Fumé Silex (Dageneau); 85 Dom. de Chevalier Blanc; 88 and 64 Climens.
    Evening 3: 98 La Tour Figeac; 89 Clos du Marquis, 90 Pape Clément, 89 Pichon Baron.
    Evening 4: 89 Ch-neuf du Pape Beaucastel; 90 Crozes-Hermitage Thalabert (Jaboulet),
    1990 Cornas (Clape), 1991 Côte Rôtie Blonde (Rostaing), 1991 Hermitage (Chave).
    Evening 5: 86 Chablis Preuses (Dauvissat), 96 Meursault-Perrières (Carillon), 1993 Meursault Pérrières (Roulot); 1995 Bâtard-Montrachet (Jean Noel Gagnard).
    Evening 6: 89 Clos La Roche (Dujac), 1992 Charmes-Chambertin (Dom. Bachelet).


    *** INDIVIDUAL TASTINGS ***

    "Schuster is a genuinely thoughtful taster and observer of the wine scene. As a teacher he is fluent and lucid, and his choice of wines is exemplary." Andrew Jefford, The Evening Standard

    2000 Left Bank Claret 1: St Estèphe, Pauillac, Graves, Médoc. Sun 28th Sept. am / pm
    NB: Two sessions to choose from: 11.00am to 2.30pm, or 5pm to 8.30pm
    Self-serve and taste / compare at leisure.
    I will be at hand for questions and comments
    2000 was the most consistently good vintage after 1990, with its Left Bank wines comparable in quality, if different in style, to both 1996 and 1990. The wines are denser than their respective 1990's and 1996's, if a little less 'sweet' than the best of the 96 northern Médocs; and its consistency across the quality hierarchy is a notable, and particularly attractive, feature of the year. The top Médocs have a completeness to them which is equal to the best 1989's and 1982's. In this first of two tastings we shall try modest Cru Bourgeois up to 'super-second' cream, from St Estèphe, Pauillac, and Pessac-Léognan.

    St Estèphe: Ormes de Pez, Le Crock, Calon-Ségur, Montrose, Cos d'Estournel;
    Pauillac: Pibran, Haut-Batailley, Haut-Bages-Libéral, Pontet-Canet, Grand-Puy-Lacoste, Lynch-Bages, Pichon-Baron, Pichon-Lalande;
    Pessac-Léognan: Carmes-Haut-Brion, Fieuzal, Haut-Bailly, Domaine de Chevalier, Pape-Clément;
    Haut-Médoc / Moulis: Charmail, Chasse-Spleen.
    20 wines; bread, cheese, terrines etc
    £109.00 (£98 if you book St Julien & Margaux as well)



    2000 Left Bank Claret 2: Margaux, St Julien. Sun 16th Nov. am / pm
    NB: Two sessions to choose from: 11.00am to 2.30pm, or 5pm to 8.30pm
    Self-serve and taste / compare at leisure.
    I will be at hand for questions and comments
    In this second look at the Médoc in 2000 St Julien stands out, as so often, for a combination of consistency and quality, but there are also delicious wines from that most variable of communes, Margaux. Plenty of high quality and good value claret here, but some superstars too: Palmer, Rauzan-Ségla; Léoville-Barton, Léoville-Las-Cases, Léoville-Poyferré and Ducru-Beaucaillou.

    Margaux: Angludet, Labégorce-Zédé, Du Tertre, La Lagune, Ferrière, Giscours, Durfort-Vivens, Brane-Cantenac, Rauzan-Ségla, Palmer;
    St Julien: Gloria, St Pierre, Beychevelle, Branaire-Ducru, Lagrange, Langoa-Barton, Gruaud-Larose, Léoville-Barton, Léoville-Poyferré, Léoville-Las-Cases, Ducru-Beaucaillou.
    21 wines; bread, cheese, terrines etc
    £119.00 (£108 if you book St Estèphe, Pauillac etc, as well)



    1991, 1992, 1994 Vintage Port. Wed 19th Nov. 6.00-9.30 pm
    Self-serve and taste / compare at leisure.
    I will be at hand for questions and comments
    1991 is rated by both Michael Broadbent and Richard Mayson as a **** vintage, described by Broadbent as "a very good year" with "deep-coloured wines of considerable promise.", and by Mayson as "classic, foursquare wines with power, backbone and grip." It had been six years since a general declaration (1985), and even then Taylor and Fonseca preferred to declare 1992, rather than 1991; a decision not entirely unconnected, perhaps, with the fact that 1992 was the 300th anniversary of Taylor's foundation. As it happens they are both excellent. 1994 is rated ****, and described as "very good" by Broadbent, but as ***** and summed up as "outstanding wines, with flesh disguising structure" by Mayson. I think I'd go with Mayson here. They are wines whose flesh makes them remarkably accessible, but they have scope and refinement as well. These ports are all beginning to be approachable, and the 91/94 and 92/94 pairs will make interesting comparisons.

    1991: Smith Woodhouse, Gould Campbell, Guimaraens, Vargellas, Croft, Cockburn, Noval, Vesuvio, Dow, Warre, Graham;
    1992: Taylor, Fonseca;
    1994: Gould Campbell, Noval, Vesuvio, Dow, Warre, Graham, Taylor, Fonseca.
    21 wines, bread, hard cheeses, stilton
    £110.00



    [Egon Müller's Scharzhofberg - a Vertical tasting Thur 27th Nov. 6.30pm]
    This is provisional at the moment, but I am hoping to have 12 - 14 wines, Kabinett, Spätlese and Auslese, going back thirty years or so. If you are interested, make a note of the date in your diary, and let me know so that I can email you the details as soon as I am certain one way or the other.



    Fine Wine Pairs, with canapés - 1. Wed. 24th Sept. 6.30pm
    Both these tastings comprise five pairs of wines, each from a classic region, in the sort of line up one might have at a dinner party. They will illustrate those differences in style, quality and maturity that are precisely what makes wine so fascinating. There will be canapés / nibbles to go with each pair.

    1. Champagne: vintage versus non-vintage from a particularly stylish house.
    Non Vintage Roederer Brut; 1999 Roederer.

    2. White Burgundy: two Premier Cru wines from the fine, 'cool' 2004 white Burgundy vintage, nicely illustrating the difference in style between Chablis and the Côte de Beaune.
    2004 Chablis 1er Cru "Montée de Tonnerre" (William Fèvre); 2004 Chassagne-Montrachet, 1er Cru "Champ-Gain" (Vincent & François Jouard).

    3. Claret: ten years apart - a good Cru Bourgeois, just starting to drink well, and a Cru Bourgeois of classed Growth quality, from a great year at its peak of maturity.
    2000 Château Les Grands Chênes, Cru Bourgeois, Médoc; 1990 Château Chasse-Spleen, Cru Bourgois, Moulis.

    4. Australian Cabernet Sauvignon: For a long time now Bin 707 has been regarded as one of Australia's top notch Cabernets. We shall have two fine vintages a decade apart.
    2004 and 1993 Penfolds Bin 707.

    5. Vintage Port: a delicious pair at thirteen and twenty eight years respectively. The Smith Woodhouse is a notable success in 1980, better than many of its 'superiors'.
    1995 Guimaraens, 1980 Smith Woodhouse.
    10 Wines and finger food
    £69



    Fine Wine Pairs, with canapés - 2. A Christmas Treat! Wed. 3rd Dec. 6.30pm
    This tasting is similar in concept to that of September 24th, the difference being that the wines here are finer, rarer - and considerably more expensive. However in a world where prices for numerous fine wines have put them well out of the reach of many of us, wines such as these show there is still great quality to be had, at what is, in the current wine market context, excellent value for money.

    1. Champagne: two mature top luxury cuvées in very different styles, both from magnum.
    1993 Pol Roger Cuvée "Winston Churchill; 1990 Dom Pérignon, magnums.

    2. White Burgundy: a fine 1er Cru, and a top Grand Cru, both in early maturity.
    2002 Meursault 1er Cru "Perrières" (Bouchard Père et Fils); 1999 Chevalier-Montrachet, Grand Cru, "Les Demoiselles" (Louis Jadot).

    3. Claret: Since Axa purchased and took over the management of Pichon Baron (2nd Growth, Pauillac) in 1986 it has regularly been nipping at the heels of the First Growths. It made a beautiful wine in 1996, just starting to drink nicely, and a great 1988. We had the 1988 in magnum for my recent 60th birthday, and everyone round the table agreed it was as lovely and classic a mature Pauillac as you could wish for, and yielded nothing to the 1990 which partnered it.
    1996 Pichon Baron, 2nd Growth, Pauillac, 1988 Pichon Baron, in magnum.

    4. Red Rhône, north and south: a comparison between the youthful power and breadth of a traditionally made (no new wood) Grenache based Châteauneuf du Pape, the impressive Pierre Usseglio's Cuvée de Mon Aieul, and the northern Rhône's purest expression of Syrah, Chave's Hermitage, in a particularly seductive year.
    2001 Pierre Usseglio "Cuvée de Mon Aieul" (Châteauneuf du Pape), 1997 Hermitage (Chave).

    5. Madeira: Madeira is my favourite wine, Bual is my favourite Madeira grape, Cossart's 1958 Bual is one of the finest examples I have come across. An excellent 15 Year Old as a foil for a great 50 year old. Enough said.
    15 Year Old Bual (Henriques and Henriques), 1958 Bual (Cossart Gordon).
    10 wines and finger food
    £125