Yachting, Trotting, Wining & Dining, Drinking & Thinking – our first FWW Summer!
The Brotherton Family Hotel has now closed its doors for the season! All visitors and friends who have
descended on us over the last three months have now gone back to the UK. The last batch left this morning, a good two hours later than planned so yet another FWW working day goes pear-shaped! However, even though we have had Thomas the Tank Engine to trip over, Shrek on DVD just as we need to make a phone call, a bathroom full of Strawberry Bubblebath and Plastic Sharks and a fridge full of Kinder Chocolate and Winnie the Pooh Yoghurt, we HAVE managed a pretty busy and exciting
Summer workwise!
We’ve done lots of Wine Tasting Events: our own Fun Wine 4 Women concept has been very successful; we re-vamped our Food & Wine Matching Masterclass into a full blown 10 course Degustation Extravaganza Gourmet Dinner – you seriously have to skip lunch to get the most out of one of these! Plus we’ve run some Private Tutored Tastings on board a couple of Yachts and run Wine Tasting Challenges at various Summer Fetes, Charity Fundraisers and the International Club’s big Summer Event – the “We Are The World Party”.
Also, having sworn never to get back into her Chef’s gear, Helen has found herself catering for all sorts of Events and Tastings, big and small – have you any idea how hot a kitchen here on the Riviera can get in July and August???? The trick is to get up at around 5am and tackle pastry and other “oven” work, in the relative cool of the day – chopping can be done later when the temperature hits the mid 30’s!
The Wine Training courses for Yachts have, naturally, taken a break over the Summer, as crews have been busy with their Summer Med season. However, lesson planning and preparations for forthcoming Autumn courses have been ongoing. Oh, and wine sourcing for the Courses too! If anyone can find me a modern Greek red from Naoussa or Nemea here in the South of France in time for my Advanced course in November, I’d be very interested to hear from you!
Marketing plans for our Vilmart champagne are also blossoming nicely (take a look at our sexy new Vilmart Champagne page here on the website!) and we will be working with the Riviera Times to showcase the Champagne at the Monaco Yacht Show later in September. More of that anon!
Our new Winefinder Consultancy Service idea is still in its infancy but more of how that will work when we return from holiday. Yes, we at FWW are taking a very short break to address the now desperate state of affairs that means there is far too much Riesling in my blood stream and a trip to Germany’s wine regions is well overdue! I’m sure we will have tales to tell on our return – so watch this space, as they say.
Helen Brotherton – 28th August 2009
Gourmet Dinner - 10 courses and 8 wines!
Yachting, Trotting, Wining & Dining, Drinking & Thinking – our first FWW Summer!
The Brotherton Family Hotel has now closed its doors for the season! All visitors and friends who have
descended on us over the last three months have now gone back to the UK. The last batch left this morning, a good two hours later than planned so yet another FWW working day goes pear-shaped! However, even though we have had Thomas the Tank Engine to trip over, Shrek on DVD just as we need to make a phone call, a bathroom full of Strawberry Bubblebath and Plastic Sharks and a fridge full of Kinder Chocolate and Winnie the Pooh Yoghurt, we HAVE managed a pretty busy and exciting
Summer workwise!
We’ve done lots of Wine Tasting Events: our own Fun Wine 4 Women concept has been very successful; we re-vamped our Food & Wine Matching Masterclass into a full blown 10 course Degustation Extravaganza Gourmet Dinner – you seriously have to skip lunch to get the most out of one of these! Plus we’ve run some Private Tutored Tastings on board a couple of Yachts and run Wine Tasting Challenges at various Summer Fetes, Charity Fundraisers and the International Club’s big Summer Event – the “We Are The World Party”.
Also, having sworn never to get back into her Chef’s gear, Helen has found herself catering for all sorts of Events and Tastings, big and small – have you any idea how hot a kitchen here on the Riviera can get in July and August???? The trick is to get up at around 5am and tackle pastry and other “oven” work, in the relative cool of the day – chopping can be done later when the temperature hits the mid 30’s!
The Wine Training courses for Yachts have, naturally, taken a break over the Summer, as crews have been busy with their Summer Med season. However, lesson planning and preparations for forthcoming Autumn courses have been ongoing. Oh, and wine sourcing for the Courses too! If anyone can find me a modern Greek red from Naoussa or Nemea here in the South of France in time for my Advanced course in November, I’d be very interested to hear from you!
Marketing plans for our Vilmart champagne are also blossoming nicely (take a look at our sexy new Vilmart Champagne page here on the website!) and we will be working with the Riviera Times to showcase the Champagne at the Monaco Yacht Show later in September. More of that anon!
Our new Winefinder Consultancy Service idea is still in its infancy but more of how that will work when we return from holiday. Yes, we at FWW are taking a very short break to address the now desperate state of affairs that means there is far too much Riesling in my blood stream and a trip to Germany’s wine regions is well overdue! I’m sure we will have tales to tell on our return – so watch this space, as they say.
Helen Brotherton
Phew! We’ve done it!! And I very much do mean “we” in this instance – our first WSET® Advanced Certificate in Wines & Spirits, with me as Tutor for the 5 Day course, and hubby Nigel, embarking onthe course as a Student. Well, its over now – the last run to the bottle bank under the cover of darkness, (with over 100 bottles opened over the 5 days, not even FWW can pretend this is normal
For those of you still getting to know us, as well as fun Wine Events and Tastings around the Riviera for both Corporate and Private clients, we also run accredited Wine Training courses through the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) here on the Cote d’Azur. Whilst these courses are hugely beneficial to anyone working with Wine as part of their job (yacht crew, restaurant and bar staff etc), we have found that there is a keen demand for a structured and formal “wine course” to appeal to enthusiastic amateurs and keen wine buffs who may just wish to expand their knowledge in a practical arena and have fun learning and exploring.