The symposium of the Finnish Sommelier Union has now taken place in Helsinki on 5 and 6 July. The venue was the “Pikku Finlandia”, a newly designed and light-flooded wooden pavilion, in the middle of a park in the city centre.
The event was mainly organised by the fabulous Heidi Mäkinen MW and me.
The event followed the General Assembly of the world association ASI (Association de la Sommellerie International). Besides many participants of the general assembly from all over the world, also experts from the Nordic countries booked the biodynamic symposium. So in the end there were 125 participants from 44 countries.
We were able to offer these experts an exciting programme around biodynamics. There were lectures by myself and Dr. Georg Meißner. Georg is an associated scientist at the University of Geisenheim and has advised wineries such as Dr. Bürklin-Wolf and Lageder on the conversion. Henri Murto was also present. Henri is chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in Finland and has been a Demeter farmer for decades in Finland. He was able to speak from a practical point of view. As winegrowers and practitioners, Jaume Gramona, Bianka Schmitt and Franz Weninger were able to speak.
There were also numerous very exciting themed tastings.
A highlight was the panel discussion with Heidi Mäkinen MW.
It was a great atmosphere!
Thanks to the sponsors Demeter e.V., respektBIODYN, Austrian Wine GmbH and to the fabulous winemakers, without them the event would not have been possible.
