The 9th annual TEXSOM conference will be held August 10th through August 12th at the Four Seasons Resort and Club at Las Colinas. This has always been a fantastic conference and you will want to register before they are sold out which happened last year.
TEXSOM’s mission is “To promote professional wine service standards, outline paths for further wine education and certification, and raise public awareness with respect to the professional standards and certifications for sommeliers and other beverage professionals.” Even though the primary attendees are sommeliers, any person interested in wine will come away from the conference learning a lot. Oh, and did I mention having a lot of fun too?
For those who have attended the TEXSOM conference before, there are some changes this year. The one big change is instead of having two days of seminars in one large room, there will be additional seminars added and each time period registrants will have a choice of four seminars to attend. This will allow more participation and give you the chance to select seminars of interest.
Additional hospitality suites have been added, that’s part of the fun, but also gives more varieties of wine to taste from around the world, again adding to the educational experience. Speaking of education, there will be additional certification courses offered such as the John Gauntner’s Sake Professional Course, The Court of Master Sommeliers’ Introductory Course, and the Society of Wine Educators Certified Specialist of Wine and Certified Specialist of Spirits exams.
Note: Agendas may be changing so check the TEXSOM schedule to check the latest. For example, the movie SOMM is now being shown Monday morning.
Seminars offered on Sunday, August 11th will be:
1st seminar selections:
- Geology Focus: “What on Earth! – How Geology Makes a Difference in the Wines we Enjoy
- Building A Well Rounded Beer Program
- Regional Focus: Survey of the Ancient World
- Traditional Method Sparkling Wines from Around the World
2nd seminar selections:
- Bourdeaux
- Sake
- Varietal Focus: Muscat Beyond Moscato
- Regional Focus: Etna
3rd seminar selections:
- Benchmark Styles of Regional Classic Red Wines
- Varietal Focus: Merlot
- Regional Focus: Santa Barbara
Monday, August 12th brings:
1st seminar selections:
- Tasting Focus: Perspectives from MS/MW/CWE
- Geography Focus: High Altitude Wines
- Regional Focus: Modern Australia
2nd seminar selections:
- Industry Roundtable (Double Session continues with 3rd seminars)
- Tasting Focus: Elements of Perception and Style
- Varietal Focus: Nebbiolo
- Regional Focus: Iconic White Wines of the Loire Valley
3rd seminar selections:
- Tasting Focus: Science Behind the Method (Terpenes and Pyrazines)
- Iconic Producer Retrospective: Klein Constantia Vin de Constance
- Varietal Focus: Tannat
- Industry Roundtable (continuation of Double Session)
The conference ends Monday night with the big Grand Tasting and Rewards Reception. Last year there were over 40 wineries pouring their wines and this year TEXSOM has said there will be even more!
I had a fantastic time at last year’s conference and learned more about wine, not to mention the networking aspect of meeting other people, and cannot wait to attend this year’s TEXSOM conference. Sign up before it’s too late!
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