Congratulations to Paul Van Calster, FWS, for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Paul:
Born 31/12/1954.
My professional career : 43 years in KBC (retail bank), from junior clerk till office-director with 12 employees. Then started my own small wine-company with direct import from the ‘vigneron indépendant’ and the focus on my favorite region Le Pays des Dentelles de Montmirail.
I have been a wine-enthusiast since the beginning of the 1980’s. Starting with supermarket-wines and then always going up in quality… always attracted to know more … always searching for reasons of taste, aroma’s, mouthfeel, … trying to understand the wine.
Wine education path:
First course was Amiticia Leuven ( 1989 - teacher Harry De Schepper).
COOVI-CERIA Anderlecht (1990/91 – teachers Harry De Schepper and Jef Bessemans), a course of 2 evenings during a whole schoolyear. France one evening – the other evening was for winemaking processes + Italy and Spain.
Then 15 years of tasting…tasting ... tasting and focusing on France. Visiting almost all de French wine-regions. Some small courses : Licatata Academy (Italy) and Australian Wines.
PIVA Antwerp (2014-2016) wine-course 5 semesters AND finishing my career office-director KBC.
Wine Spirit Education Trust Level 3 ( 2018 - Winewise Antwerp) passed With Distinction.
French Wine Scholar (2019 – Winewise Antwerp) with Highest Honors.
...coming up …. FWS Master of Rhône.