Wine & Spirits Education Trust Adopts Hanni Principles

NEWS RELEASE

Napa CA, June 7, 2011 — The London-based Wine & Spirits Education Trust, the major international beverage educational association, is adopting the wine-and-food program espoused by Tim Hanni, M.W., after his visit this month. Hanni’s principles focus on individual preferences and eliminates the inference, “we know what you should like better than you do.”

“I am very proud to formally announce that the Wine & Spirits Education Trust will be adopting my principles and approach to the enjoyment of wine with food for their Advanced Course curriculum.” Their key textbook, Exploring the World of Wines and Spirits, is currently being revised, translated and reprinted with the new chapter and is scheduled for distribution this fall.

You can click here to download a reprint of the new chapter (.pdf), with the permission of the WSET.

“I would be delighted to answer any questions and interested in comments on the material. I was in London earlier this month and was able to conduct a Master Class with the WSET team and it was very well received with some lingering doubts and resistance clearly evident from a few attendees,” said Hanni his presentation at the WSET headquarters in London.

“I know that a lot of my assertions may at first seem extreme but I am very careful with my research and invite others to participate in helping to bring about positive change to an area that has become increasingly confusing and contradictory. My transition from staunch traditionalist to “disruptive innovator” in the wine and food arena did not come about either quickly or easily.”

Hanni asserts that he is more convinced than ever that the way to globally expand wine sales and promote a greater diversity of wine styles will come from the wine community learning to celebrate the diversity of wine consumer tastes and deepen our understanding of individual consumer preferences. Combining this consumer-centric approach with a new and more accurate understanding of the dynamics of wine and food interactions with much-needed revisions to inaccurate wine and food principles could be the key for stimulating wine consumption from consumers who love wine but are off put by the unnecessary, confusing rituals and false promises of wine and food pairing. My mission is to expand wine enjoyment and by introducing a much greater rigor into a community that operates on a lot of half-truths and myths.

For more information contact: Tim Hanni 707/206-6255 or tim@timhanni.com