Founded by Britta and Dick Samuelsson in 1996, Vinkällan is a family-run company offering education in the wide field of wine and schooling for budding sommeliers. Over the years, the operation has gone from being Dick’s solo consulting company to an international outfit offering schools and courses on offer at various locations in Sweden and Denmark, and 2014 sees the most ambitious expansion yet as they open the Scandinavian Wine Academy in Singapore to train sommeliers there.
Regardless of the expansion and growth, Vinkällan has remained a family company and as son and daughter Filip and Maya came of age they too joined the company, becoming partners a few years back.
I met up with Maya Samuelsson at the head office and school at Telefonplan, to get an idea of how to become a sommelier.
Tell us about your relationship to Vinkällan.
Maya Samuelsson: Vinkällan is like my second home, and this is also the feeling that we want to give every student – we are a family and all our students are part of our family. My childhood has been influenced by wine culture and my interest has grown in these years. For example, my father Dick trained my brother and I to identify different lemonades and soft drinks in black glasses early on, to develop our sense of smell. I was at my first harvest when I was two years old. Apparently I ate most of the grapes I picked, but I’ve been told that I really did enjoy the fruit a lot. In my late teens I found an interest in bartending and the joy of meeting and working with people. I did a course in bartending after I took my sommelier exams and started working in nightclubs and restaurants. I enjoyed those years very much and I got the opportunity to work in both Malaysia and Thailand as a teacher for local restaurant staff. This in a way lead me back to Vinkällan, because I always want to learn more, and what better way to learn than to work with education? My future plans are to compete in sommelier competitions to inspire myself and hopefully other women to compete.
With movies like the recently-released wine education documentary Somm and an increase in both wine coverage in the media and the number of wine bars, the sommelier is becoming very trendy. Do you see it as a growing business?
MS: Food and wine is something that is a pleasure for most people and therefore I would not say this is a trend that will be short-lived. As customer knowledge increases, so too will the demand for sommeliers in restaurants and in the retail market. So yes, this is an ever-growing business.
What can you tell us about how your courses differ from others? And why do you think so many of your former students now are successful in their careers?
MS: I can´t tell you about other courses, but our focus is on pedagogy, quality of knowledge and giving our students the best tools for their profession. Another key word for us is family – it is very important that every student is a part of the Vinkällan family and that they always feel welcome and comfortable at our school. We want them to long for the next lesson. I think that professional success in this business comes from knowledge, but at the same time knowing how to be humble and keeping service and guest satisfaction as the primary focus.
Who is your average student and what is the main goal for people coming for training at Vinkällan?
MS: Most of our students come from restaurants. The age span is very wide and it is split 50/50 between men and women, which gives the groups a great diversity. I would say that the main goal for our students depends on where you come from – whether you are a bartender, a waiter, a chef or a manager for example. But everyone wants to be able to advance in their profession and deliver an even better experience to their customers.
If someone wanted to get an insight into the sommelier profession, what are your tips?
MS: If you want to get to know more about the profession our doors are always open and you are welcome to join a class for a tasting. Then you can both get the feeling of what it’s like to study to become a sommelier, as well as chat with the other students.
Are there other ways to use an education like yours outside the world of restaurants?
MS: The sommelier profession is one that is spreading from top restaurants to local bistros. For every passing year, working in the restaurant is more and more accepted as a career and not just a job you take to sponsor your studies. We have Sweden’s many fantastic sommeliers and other restaurant staff to thank for the fact that they are raising the bar for their profession. We can see that after having completed the course some of our students would like to try something other than working as a sommelier in a restaurant. Most of them start working in the retail business or for Systembolaget. Quite a few also start their own companies where they consult, arrange wine tastings or help restaurants to set a wine list and train their staff.
You have expanded outside the borders of Scandinavia. Tell us some more about your future plans of opening up Scandinavian Wine Academy in Singapore. What is the biggest challenge of going into Asia?
MS: That I can’t tell you but I can say that we are definitely planning to expand more. The two biggest challenges for us are that the restaurant culture is very different in Asia compared to the European markets, and in some cases there is a language barrier to overcome. It is fun to be a part of the development going on in Asia, because the food and beverage market is changing so rapidly. Wine is becoming more and more important, and for us it is a great experience to assist with our knowledge and also learn about and bring Asian culture home with us.
As a sommelier, a lot revolves around the matching of wine and food. What is your own absolute favourite combination?
MS: My absolute favourite? That’s a hard question. A combination that I like very much is Stilton (English cheese) and an aged Tawny Port. It is a classic combination and is even better if you put it on a Swedish pepparkaka and top it with a slice of banana.
What is the single best bottle you have ever tasted?
MS: The best wine I have ever tasted was a Brunello di Montalcino after seeing the opera Carmen in Verona in Italy. Brunello di Montalcino is a DOCG in Tuscany made of the Sangiovese grape. Though the wine was very, very good and I can’t remember exactly which producer, I think the environment at the time had big part of the experience.
Who is the best sommelier in your opinion, or the greatest inspiration in your profession?
MS: There are so many fantastic sommeliers in Sweden today and they have really put our country on the gastronomic world map, together with our many great chefs. But my personal inspiration and idol has always been my father who is the principal at Vinkällan. But he doesn’t work as a sommelier.
What wines would you suggest for a great tasting with a bunch of friends at home?
MS: For a fun learning experience my recommendation is that you buy a variety of wines with famous grapes such as Pinot, Pinotage and a Cabernet Sauvignon. Invite your friends and open them all at the same time, and have fun noticing and learning the differences in these fantastic grapes.
Text and image: Pär Strömberg
