KEDGE Alumni offers Kedgers in Geneva courses in wine tasting

Launched more than 10 years ago, the KEDGE Alumni Branch of Geneva has rapidly become the most active of the communities of former students from KEDGE, after the branches of Paris, Bordeaux, and Marseille. Hosted by Vincent Lefebvre, Lionel Rosnet, and Tamila Chaouche – who came on board two months ago, they are organising a number of events that are each very different: afterworks, conferences, company tours, inter-school galas, and … wine tasting sessions. The KEDGE community in Switzerland has already been pleased with events that have focused on the discovery of wines, so Lionel Rosnet decided to expand on it, to the great pleasure of alumni! It must be mentioned that Lionel knows about wine tasting. He’s the head of WSET, an accredited wine school in Geneva! And since he’s the best one to tell us about it, we have asked him a few questions about the opening of this new club, which is 100% dedicated to wine. 

REGISTER FOR FIRST SEMESTER

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Hello Lionel.  Please give us a quick introduction and tell us about your role in Geneva’s Alumni network.

I got a degree from the Grand Ecole Programme at KEDGE Bordeaux (Class of 2006). In 2012, after spending six years in London where I had learned the trade as a wine merchant and teacher, I moved to Geneva to open WSET, an accredited  wine school. When I moved to Geneva, I connected with the alumni network which Vincent Lefebvre (KEDGE graduate, Class of 2000) headed, and quickly began helping with organising qualitative wine events, such as a Wine School Tasting at Seedspace, Ride & Wine at Tesla, Food & Wine Masterclass at Châteauvieux (Michelin 2 stars), and Wine Lovers Apero at Flux. 

Souvenir de notre événement (complet) pour diplômés de @KedgeBS à Genève, au domaine de Châteauvieux ! Une belle soirée de dégustations pour nos alumni. Consultez notre agenda : https://t.co/LY4KqEWGjf pic.twitter.com/lZhs3Yb3Zu

— KEDGE BS Alumni (@KEDGEBSAlumni) 14 mai 2018

(A souvenir from our (sold out) event for @KedgeBS  graduates in Geneva, at the Domaine de Châteauvieux! A nice evening of tastings for our alumni. See our agenda: https://t.co/LY4KqEWGjf pic.twitter.com/lZhs3Yb3Zu - KEDGE BS Alumni (@KEDGEBSAlumni) 14 May 2018)

Today, you have decided to start a programme dedicated to wine for the KEDGE Alumni network in Switzerland. Can you tell us more?

Our network of alumni in French-speaking Switzerland is very large (600 LinkedIn members, 400 Facebook members), very diverse profiles -from young singles living downtown to mature former students with families living in the countryside, and very geographically split between Geneva, Nyon, and Lausanne. Therefore, we decided to develop the events and structure them around three formats to encourage connections and networking: business, with conferences and company visits; cultural, with chocolate or wine tastings, tours of watchmaking factories or Switzerland’s cultural and institutional heritage sites, and sharing with inter-school galas, and afterwork drinks. By creating KEDGE Alumni Wine Tasting of Geneva, we wanted to associate drinking with discovery, learning, and exchange. Our alumni were so pleased with the wine events mentioned above that it was natural to expand upon the experience and find a setting and framework in line with their expectations. I got to know to Olivier Mora, (KEDGE graduate, Class of 1999) who has managed the Paris Oenology Club for many years and I was largely inspired by his model. Thanks Olivier! 

How will these meetings take place, who can participate, and what subjects will be addressed? 

The KEDGE Alumni Wine Tasting of Geneva is an oenology club that will meet eight times a year – four times in the fall, and four times in the spring – on the 2nd Thursday of each month, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm. These events are open to the entire KEDGE Alumni network in French-speaking Switzerland, as well as to their guests (partners, friends, colleagues).

To summarise:

• Registrations are per semester
• Each semester consists of four sessions (once a month, from 7pm to 9pm)
• If you miss a session (for a professional or unexpected reason), you can make it with a session the next semester

Each session will consist of a blind wine tasting to introduce a topic that will be expanded upon and put into practice afterwards by tasting five to seven other wines. Nibblies will be served at each session. The topic will cover both the countries and regions of Europe (Switzerland, Spain, Italy, etc.) and of the New World (South Africa, New Zealand, Chile, etc.), the different styles of wine produced in the world (white, red, rosé, sweet, fortified, effervescent, etc.), and will highlight organic, biodynamic. and natural wines. Food and wine pairings will be discussed, as well as the basic principles of selection, storage, and serving of wines. 

REGISTER FOR FIRST SEMESTER 

SEE THE CLUB PAGE

Finally, do you already have specific dates?

For the first semester, the first session will be on Swiss wines, and is scheduled for Thursday, 19 September. It will cover wines from many cantons and produced from autochthonous vines - that is to say vines that can only be found in Switzerland! The other three sessions of the semester will be on Thursdays, 10 October, 14 November, and 10 December 2019. We will cover, respectively, the regions of Italy and Spain, and will try modestly to rediscover the French regions.

The spring semester will cover sweet wines, reds, whites, and roses from around the world, exposing their secrets, from the vine to the glass, over four sessions scheduled on Thursdays, 12 March, 9 April, 14 May, and 11 June 2020.

Registrations are already open on our site, and are open through the summer. Session dates, topics, and locations will be confirmed before the start of September.

SWISS ALUMNI GROUP LINKEDIN       SWISS ALUMNI FACEBOOK GROUP

Does the Club offer other initiatives?

If participants wish, small-group outings can be organised throughout the year, for both the registered participants and occasional attendees. Examples would be: visits to the Agricultural School of Changins (VD) in October, the largest exhibition Wine in Switzerland Arvinis (GE) in November, Open Cellars Valaisannes and Genevoises in May, Caves Open Vaudoises in June, and visits and meals at the winemakers’ location... Everything is possible to quench your thirst for discovery, come many!

Geneva Oenology Switzerland Wine Wine