Learn about wine
Domen Prešern DipWSET is Denmark’s reigning blind wine tasting champion. A wine educator with over a decade of experience, he has taught at all levels, from complete novices taking their first sips to experienced professionals. His long list of successes in blind-tasting competitions dates back to his time representing the University of Oxford.
Domen approaches wine uniquely holistically, combining his vast knowledge of the wine world with a keen understanding of wine chemistry and sensory perception.
“Much of the beauty of the world of wine lies in its diversity and the lifetime of exploration it grants us. Join our tastings and allow me to spark the same passion for discovery in you.“
Can you organise private classes at ROOTS or at a third location?
Certainly! We are happy to organise bespoke educational tastings for private groups, associations and company staff clubs of various sizes at your preferred location.
Please get in touch at domen@rootsvin.dk and let’s plan it together!
Testimonials from past events
- “Amazing! You could feel the thought process that went into which wines to compare, and which wines they picked in general.”
- “I love how Domen invites us to think objectively about the wine.”
- “Yesterday was a unique possibility to taste something I would probably never get to otherwise.”
- “This inspired me to dive even deeper into each of the visited regions.”
Autumn '25 at ROOTS:
Monday's Mini-Masterclasses
Make your Monday evenings fun by joining our interactive and slightly nerdy tastings in a wine-positive atmosphere where everyone can learn about wine and themselves.
Come with an open mind (and open nostrils) to master a specific aspect of wine. These tasting workshops are designed to foster multi-way communication, facilitating learning from your peers as well as from our Events and Education Manager Domen Prešern DipWSET.
The only Master of Wine in Denmark, Dr Janice Wang MW, has been heavily involved with designing all Monday events. She will be joining for some on some of the Mondays, including on 1 September.
Mondays at ROOTS Østerbro, 18:30 – 21:00:
Taste 6 wines
Dive into a new aspect of wine
Discover new flavours
Discuss and debate
from 450kr per person
Topics can focus on a grape variety, region, tasting technique, key issues in the wine world or just about anything else. Wines are always carefully selected to illustrate the subject at hand and thus facilitate discovery.
Events are suitable for anyone excited about wine and feature a wide range of wine styles from around the world. All tastings will be conducted in English.
Upcoming Monday's Mini-Masterclasses:
Click here to book your spot and taste like an expert!
>> Dr Janice Wang MW is joining this session <<
Have you ever wondered how wine critics and importers approach a glass of wine? Have you ever been taken aback at someone’s description of a wine? Would you like to be more confident when someone asks you what you think of a wine? What is ‘finish’ and what do ‘legs’ have to do with anything?
By tasting 6 wines made in different styles we’ll learn the basics of systematic and objective wine tasting. You’ll learn how to get more from a sip of wine, how to start communicating what you’re experiencing and how to verbalise your likes and dislikes.
Pinot Noir has long stood on a pedestal, producing some of the most enchanting and delicate wines in the world. But it might not be alone any longer. Skilled winemakers around the world have learned how to make wines just as elegant, just as beautiful and just as enchanting by leveraging indigenous grape varieties.
We will put it to the test together, pitting Pinot Noir against up-and-comers: we will find out if Pinot still reigns supreme or if the challengers are legitimate. We will also discuss what elegance and metaphorical descriptors like that really mean when talking about wine. Do they have their place, or are they just too subjective?
In a wine-world replete with silly marketing terms, “terroir” might well take the cake. “The complete natural environment in which a particular wine is produced, including factors such as the soil, topography, and climate,” possibly including local culture, traditions and even whatever fungus spores might be floating in the atmosphere or live on the winemakers’ … let’s leave it there.
Despite all that, while you can’t literally taste the rocks on top which grapevines grow, you can often taste the place of origin. Not explicitly – the wine doesn’t literally taste the same as the place it’s from – but still recognisably so. Geography determines a lot about a wine. Wine from grapes grown in a hot climate tastes different from wine grown in a cooler climate. Grapes grown on a hillside have different characteristics from ones grown on the plain right below it. Even the soil grapes are grown on can make a difference — although perhaps not in the literal way of tasting minerality.
We will taste a range of wines from around the world and look at some of the easiest tricks enabling you to deduce something about the origin of just about every wine. You will also test the myths and limits of terroir – what is real or what is just a marketing ploy?
Bubbles might seem frivolous, but they are a deadly serious matter. Not all bubbles are born the same, and it shows once you take a sip. Origin matters, grapes used matter, but what matters more than anything is how the bubbles are made. And while Champagne has captured the cultural cachet, not all Champagne is made the same – and, often, there is a better value alternative from somewhere else (if, often, made in much the same way!).
We will taste 6 bubbly wines and discuss how they feel, how they differ – and why. We’ll delve into what tasting a sparkling wine tells us about how it was produced and where. You will learn how to differentiate the great from the merely good, what to expect from a bottle you haven’t tasted yet and how to pick the right bottle for the occasion.
It’s easy to describe how a wine looks like. It can be easy enough to list off a few fruits the smell and taste remind you of. But communicating the mouthfeel and texture of a wine is a tall order – it’s just not something we’re used to doing in our day-to-day lives. Communicating mouthfeel is really the ultimate exercise in using metaphor to communicate sensory experience.
We will taste a range of 6 representative wines from around the world, examining some clear as well as some more nuanced differences in mouthfeel. In the course of this tasting we will jointly develop a vocabulary to describe mouthfeel, both to better communicate it to others as well as to be better able to compare wines in one’s mind’s eye.
Hot Andalucía at the southern tip of Spain has been world-famous for its wines for centuries: Shakespeare wrote of “Sherris sack” in the 16th century and Sherry of Jerez has been a staple of Northern European wine lists throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. After a bit of a fall from grace, Sherry is truly back in fashion as producers have renewed their focus on quality as demand for quantity dropped off.
We will, of course, delve into the different styles of Sherry: from delicate and saline Fino aged under flor to bold and walnut-scented Oloroso. Beyond that, we will explore the non-fortified wines that are back with a vengeance: both the newest and borderline experimental, while also harkening back to pre-Shakespearean times.
Interactive wine tasting course – learn about wine through tasting. Scroll down to learn more!
Coming Soon: Masterclasses with Dr Janice Wang MW - watch this space
The art and science of wine tasting:
a foundational course in 6 sessions
If you are interested to learn more or to be notified when a course is scheduled, please email domen@rootsvin.dk
Wine educator and two-time Danish blind wine tasting champion Domen Prešern DipWSET will guide you through the world of wine over six structured sessions. You will learn how to systematically taste wine and consistently communicate what you’re tasting. It is a highly interactive course, delivered through the prism of blind-tasting and extensive discussion.
The course is thoroughly suitable for the vast majority of those interested in wine, whatever the level and type of prior experience with wine, as everybody will be starting more or less from scratch. It’s all about your interaction with wine – the theory you learn about wine along the way is in service of better engaging with what you’re experiencing and why.
You will walk away with a broad and solid foundation, enabling you to confidently engage with the world of wine going forward and communicate effectively.
You will receive:
- 6 guided tasting sessions, tasting 8 wines per session – 48 wines tasted in total;
- A set of tasting glasses and spittoon, and;
- An exclusive handbook covering key aspects of the wine world and wine tasting that will serve you as a reference handbook for years to come, facilitating continuing learning going forward.
The 48 wines you will taste are selected to systematically cover the world of wine and key styles, including:
- Key international grape varieties (e.g. Chardonnay, Riesling, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, Syrah);
- Wines of regionally important grape varieties (e.g. Albariño, Grüner Veltliner, Gamay, Sangiovese);
- Still wines made in a wide range of approaches, styles and quality levels; and
- A handful of sparkling and fortified wines defined by their winemaking.
Through the tastings, you will learn how to:
- Systematically taste and describe any wine;
- Assess the quality and ageing potential of a wine;
- Write useful tasting notes: consistently communicate about wine with others and your future self;
- Determine and describe your likes, dislikes and preferences in wine;
- Understand other people’s (e.g. wine critics’) tasting notes, extract useful information from wine labels and better predict what a wine is really like when reading about it; and
- Start deducing a wine’s identity from what you can smell and taste.
A better theoretical understanding of wine
Some of this will be covered during tasting sessions, the rest is included in the written materials. This will include:
- Influences of key natural factors, viticultural and winemaking decisions on a wine;
- How the chemical composition of a wine relates to your sensory perception;
- Characteristics of 50 key grape varieties and common blends across most important 100 winemaking regions;
- Limitations of human senses of smell and taste; and
- How to leverage all these in the context of wine and food pairing.
Is this course for me
This course is for anyone interested in expanding their wine horizons. Regardless of how much experience with wine you have. Everyone will leave with a solid foundation, able to confidently explore the world of wine. If you have any questions, feel free to get in touch by email: domen@rootsvin.dk .