FOR BON VIVANTS AND AFICIONADOS

The sky is the limit for gourmands who appreciate the finest food and drink. A “Connoisseur Selections Menu” offers diners a truly unrivaled experience with seasonal delicacies and matching wines. Our Connoisseur guests may enjoy private wine tasting seminars alongside a calendar of culinary events and exclusive presentations by master craftsmen and artisans.

WEINSINN

The Subtle Sense of Wine

Taste, smell, feel and see with all the senses. One does not drink wine to quench the thirst, but to recognize and enjoy wine’s true essence. This is an art form with its own philosophy – not to mention, a true pleasure for the palate. This is what our top-flight sommelier Rakhshan Zhouleh shares in his “Weinsinn” seminars.

According to individual wishes, we will discover different wine regions and their typical aromas. We teach color, scent and taste and learn how a wine’s bouquet reflects its unique climate, terroir and variety. We open our precious wine vault and taste premium wines from select estates with the highest standards. Our individual wine and Champagne tastings are available by request.

Sense of Wine

Austrian Cuvées

A good cuvée is like a great wedding in a bottle: the key is the harmony of former opposites, if love is to last. Keeping in line with the wedding march, in these fine wines the varying notes and tones from different grapes time and again create incredible flavor compositions. Year after year, under the hands of ambitious cellar masters, extraordinary wines are created that impress with their character and individuality. The varieties Blaufränkisch, Zweigelt, Saint Laurent, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot like to fascinate in their exquisite combination with subtle references to local berries and spices. Experience it yourself with a wine tasting in our house!

South Tyrol

Small, highly perched, unique: South Tyrol impresses with its wide variety, with carefully matured characters that must have unique wines. The noble wines of this region, in which the rivers Eisack and Etsch meander from the snow-capped peaks of the north to the fig and olive trees in the south, convince with their great diversity.

We get to know wines whose mere scent already creates a holiday mood. The Pinot Blanc, for example, with its balance between fine fruitiness and light spice, reflects the entire terroir of the South Tyrolean wine world. In the case of the red wines, it is essential to taste the representatives made from the autochthonous Vernatsch grape. They captivate with their typical soft and velvety taste of pickled berries and bitter almonds.

A Pinot Noir is also on the tasting program. Due to the heat-sensitive, demanding grapes, this wine is actually not a domain of Italy – however, South Tyrol produces remarkable exceptions that we enjoy.

Champagne

Champagne is mainly made from three grape varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier (Black Riesling) and Pinot Noir. The sophisticated technique of champagne production allows us to turn the red Pinot grapes into fine sparkling white wines. Find out more about the strictly regulated and protected process and look forward to our champagne tasting.

“Hear” with your nose and palate: Champagnes are like an orchestra whose elements have to be carefully coordinated and conducted. We cannot agree with the widespread opinion that champagne is only appropriate on extraordinary occasions. On the contrary: These pearls of good taste are perfect companions for dishes of all kinds and, due to their low alcohol content, are ideal as a summer drink. At the wine seminar in Salzburg we learn what assemblage, dosage or disgorging means, taste prime examples of Champagne and feel the mousse of the perlage, which enchants the palate with the elegance of a ballet dancer.

Wine country Austria

Small country, great quality – Austria only has 6% of the wine-growing area of France, but as a »wine wonderland« it has long been a part of the world class league and is always good for a surprise. The local whites and more and more reds enthuse with their extraordinary variety of flavors and have a reputation as ideal accompaniments to food.

During the journey through the Austrian wine-growing regions, around 70 percent white and 30 percent red grape varieties are tasted.

Rhône wines

We take you into the fantastic world of enjoyment of the French Rhône Valley and serve you treasures from selected small wineries with high quality standards. We taste the diversity of the region and recognize connections between the soil conditions, climate and tones.In which wines do we recognize the typical Provencal aromas such as lemon balm, vineyard peach or olives? How does the light-footed St. Joseph from the northern, cooler valley relate to the noble sweet nutmeg from the hot south? Of course, a prominent Châteauneuf-du-Pape with its aromas of flowers and oriental spices such as star anise, cinnamon and coriander seeds should not be missing. You will also learn which dishes harmonize with the wines – and which do not.

The wine country Italy

With its millennia-old winemaking tradition and hundreds of grape varieties, our southern neighbor is an extremely diverse wine country. Inventive winemakers in almost 20 growing areas inspire beginners and connoisseurs alike with their products.

From Sterzing to Sicily: On our voyage of discovery, we will help you gain a basic understanding of the terroir, climate, grape varieties and styles as well as provide you with the sensory tools for tasting our Italians. We‘ll enjoy the elegant Arneis grape from Piedmont as well as the South Tyrolean Gewürztraminer with notes of white rose and exotic fruits. In addition, the deep red, delicately spicy Nebbiolo grape variety from Barolo and Barbaresco helps us understand how a distance of barely 20 km beeline between two growing areas can affect texture and aroma.

Wines from Burgundy

Bourgogne is home to very old grape varieties. The wine region offers them ideal climatic conditions as well as a terroir in which they can develop perfectly. And even if the most famous wines may be the Premiers and Grands Crus, there are many other regional secrets that have finely kissed every wine sense.

We savor the variety of the splendid offers and give our entire taste sensors every possible chance to form its opinion. In this particular case, the uniqueness of the wines harmonizes perfectly with the scents of Mediterranean herbs.

Riesling

Once traded more expensively than French Bordeaux in aristocratic houses and at the court of the Tsars, the Riesling lost its luxury image after the world wars due to cheap mass production. With the younger generation of winemakers on a quest for quality, the Riesling is currently experiencing a legendary renaissance and is achieving top prices in auctions worldwide.

Like no other variety, Riesling bears the signature of nature, the winemaker and the vintage. Typically characterized by its mineral, fruity acidity, this wine offers us an immense range of aromas from apple and peach to quince and dried apricots, honey and ginger. We taste and compare wines from the Moselle region and the Wachau and experience, with our own palates, the countless levers that can be moved during winemaking in order to influence the bouquet. If you would like to know why something may be amiss with the Riesling and what role the emerald lizard plays, you should not miss this seminar.

WINE SEMINAR IN SALZBURG

Where life is celebrated, wine cannot be missing. At the St. Peter Stiftskulinarium, we invite you to our extraordinary wine tasting in Salzburg, where you will embark on an exciting journey of discovery through the world of wine, accompanied by top sommeliers. Our wine seminars are aimed at wine lovers as well as connoisseurs who want to experience an exquisite gourmet experience in Salzburg. For this purpose we open our imposing wine cellar, while our renowned sommelier Rakhshan Zhouleh with great dedication passes on his knowledge about wine in theory and practice in an entertaining and impressive way. With sense and understanding, with dedication and full concentration, but above all with a lot of fun and enthusiasm for flavors. With different combinations and surprises you will taste, smell, feel, see and experience with all your senses exclusive fine drops of small wineries in our wine tasting. If you enjoy wine, want to expand your understanding of wine and learn with like-minded wine friends, our wine seminar in Salzburg is the right place for you.

In gourmet gastronomy, a sommelier usually selects wines to match the menu. But at the St. Peter Stiftskulinarium in Salzburg, we like to turn this traditional concept around! As part of our Connoisseur Wine Seminar series, our chef takes his cue from the exquisite wines that our sommelier Rakhshan Zhouleh has selected for the wine tasting. For those fine drops, the team of our award-winning gourmet kitchen creates the appropriate epicurean accompaniment. A gourmet and wine seminar concept that is unique in Salzburg! Because wine is so much more than an alcoholic beverage. Wine as a cultural asset tells stories and our sommelier Rakhshan Zhouleh tells you these stories with passion! Rakhshan Zhouleh, three times “German Sommelier of the Year”, is an internationally recognized luminary. Like no other, he knows how to combine pleasure and background in our wine seminar in Salzburg in an extraordinary way and always put it into a seasonal and regional context.