Page 60 - Life In Naples Magazine December 2014 Edition
P. 60
T The tasting will provide guests with a rare opportunity to taste some of the world’s
he Naples Winter Wine Festival will open on Thursday, January 22nd at 11am with the
first-ever Krug Champagne Tasting Seminar and Luncheon hosted by Olivier Krug
himself, the sixth generation head of the celebrated French House of Champagne.
most prized cuvées while Olivier Krug personally traces the 171-year history of the
storied House of Krug. Among these prestige cuvées is the House’s pinnacle Grande
Cuvée, which blends over 120 wines to create its iconic champagne, served in a white wine
glass rather than a traditional flute to allow the effervescent wine to show at its very best.
The Tasting Seminar will also
feature special guest Antonio Galloni,
internationally renowned wine critic
and founder of Vinous Media, who
will offer commentary and insight OLIVIER KRUG
about Krug and the Champagne
ANTONIO GALLONI region. An exceptional multi-course
lunch paired with Krug Champagne will follow at Naples’ premier French
restaurant, Bleu Provence.
The exclusive event will set the stage for the headline events of the
Festival, including private vintner dinners that pair top celebrity chefs
with some of the most awarded vintners in the world, such as the Festival’s
Honored Vintner, Marchese Piero Antinori.
Wines at the vintner dinners will be poured by a dozen of the world’s most accomplished
Master Sommeliers—the ultimate professional credential anyone in the wine profession can attain
worldwide—including Michelin-starred Master Sommelier Larry Stone, who has been selected
as the Honored Sommelier for the Festival. Stone was the first American to win the prestigious
Grand Prix de Sopexa as Best International Sommelier in French Wines and the only one awarded
the title of Maître Sommelier L’Union de la Sommellerie Française. Since becoming America’s 9th
Master Sommelier, Stone has gone on to open and curate some of the best restaurants and wine
programs in the country, opening the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago and working with famed
chef Charlie Trotter at his eponymous restaurant before co-founding Rubicon Restaurant in San
Francisco, which earned Stone a Michelin star, the Ivy Award, and a Silver Spoon from Food &
Wine magazine, as well as recognition from the James Beard Foundation and Wine Spectator.
This will be Stone’s second year at the Festival and he will lead a team of eleven other sommeliers, LARRY STONE
each of whom has earned the prestigious Master Sommelier title held by only 219 wine professionals
worldwide. They come to Naples from some of the United States’ most renowned wine programs
and have been widely recognized for their talents. They include Desi Echavarrie and Jason Heller, winners of the National Chaine
des Rotisseurs Young Sommelier competition; Alexander LaPratt, former sommelier at Jean-George’s flagship restaurant in the
Trump Tower in New York and current owner of the popular Brooklyn restaurant Atrium; and Ian Cauble, whose journey to
become a Master Sommelier was documented in the highly popular documentary film, “SOMM.”
60 Life in Naples | December 2014
he Naples Winter Wine Festival will open on Thursday, January 22nd at 11am with the
first-ever Krug Champagne Tasting Seminar and Luncheon hosted by Olivier Krug
himself, the sixth generation head of the celebrated French House of Champagne.
most prized cuvées while Olivier Krug personally traces the 171-year history of the
storied House of Krug. Among these prestige cuvées is the House’s pinnacle Grande
Cuvée, which blends over 120 wines to create its iconic champagne, served in a white wine
glass rather than a traditional flute to allow the effervescent wine to show at its very best.
The Tasting Seminar will also
feature special guest Antonio Galloni,
internationally renowned wine critic
and founder of Vinous Media, who
will offer commentary and insight OLIVIER KRUG
about Krug and the Champagne
ANTONIO GALLONI region. An exceptional multi-course
lunch paired with Krug Champagne will follow at Naples’ premier French
restaurant, Bleu Provence.
The exclusive event will set the stage for the headline events of the
Festival, including private vintner dinners that pair top celebrity chefs
with some of the most awarded vintners in the world, such as the Festival’s
Honored Vintner, Marchese Piero Antinori.
Wines at the vintner dinners will be poured by a dozen of the world’s most accomplished
Master Sommeliers—the ultimate professional credential anyone in the wine profession can attain
worldwide—including Michelin-starred Master Sommelier Larry Stone, who has been selected
as the Honored Sommelier for the Festival. Stone was the first American to win the prestigious
Grand Prix de Sopexa as Best International Sommelier in French Wines and the only one awarded
the title of Maître Sommelier L’Union de la Sommellerie Française. Since becoming America’s 9th
Master Sommelier, Stone has gone on to open and curate some of the best restaurants and wine
programs in the country, opening the Four Seasons Hotel in Chicago and working with famed
chef Charlie Trotter at his eponymous restaurant before co-founding Rubicon Restaurant in San
Francisco, which earned Stone a Michelin star, the Ivy Award, and a Silver Spoon from Food &
Wine magazine, as well as recognition from the James Beard Foundation and Wine Spectator.
This will be Stone’s second year at the Festival and he will lead a team of eleven other sommeliers, LARRY STONE
each of whom has earned the prestigious Master Sommelier title held by only 219 wine professionals
worldwide. They come to Naples from some of the United States’ most renowned wine programs
and have been widely recognized for their talents. They include Desi Echavarrie and Jason Heller, winners of the National Chaine
des Rotisseurs Young Sommelier competition; Alexander LaPratt, former sommelier at Jean-George’s flagship restaurant in the
Trump Tower in New York and current owner of the popular Brooklyn restaurant Atrium; and Ian Cauble, whose journey to
become a Master Sommelier was documented in the highly popular documentary film, “SOMM.”
60 Life in Naples | December 2014
