In a pitch-dark cellar, the darkness brings out flavours that otherwise remain hidden. Kongres Magazine’s reporter ventured to Bratislava’s historic old town to a clandestine cellar to experience the wine tasting first-hand. As the light becomes dim and slowly darkness replaces the obscure illumination in the wine cellar, senses become heightened. In this atmosphere, Slovakian wines show their best qualities. We chatted with Tibor Kiss, who curates the wine tastings and is a vociferous proponent of showcasing Slovakian wines to the world.
Q1: How did you come up with the idea to take guests on a journey of wine flavours in the dark?
I was hoping to solve the problem, really. I knew people wished to understand wines more. I saw small wineries struggling to present their excellent wines to the public. I have heard people say Slovak wines are not great based on their limited experience. Then I stumbled upon an article about a Swiss restaurant doing fine dining in the dark and knew this was the way. After two years of preparations and consultations with psychologists, neurologists, enologists and even actors, we created a unique show.
Q2: Can guests try Slovakian wines? Do you cooperate with local artisan wineries and thus support the local community?
From the very beginning, we have only presented wines from the Slovakian wineries. In addition, it is not only the origin but the source which is vastly different from the mainstream offer on the supermarket shelves. Even though it can be easy for many to think so, we are no winery. What we do is we cross the country from east to west, and we curate the hidden gems of, mainly, small family wineries. Then we gather them in our beautiful cellar in Bratislava to help locals and foreigners “see” their beauty. That is where the dark comes in.
Q3: What do guests learn during the wine-tasting journey?
The tasting is an educational, relaxing and strong sensational experience guided by intelligent humour. Guests are not informed about the wine in advance; they smell and taste it first, then have a soft conversation with the sommelier about the wine. We never do the monologue tastings. Guests are naturally drawn into the tasting, and the guide reacts to their sensations about the wine. They guess the colour of the tasted wine, its sweetness and grape variety. What do they learn? The colour and other properties of wine are not as important as harmony and balance. Mainly when they lose a bet with me by guessing the incorrect colour of two samples! :)
Q4: What kind of guests do you aim to attract? Do you cooperate with local tourist companies for incentives?
We are strong in serving the groups. Since we can seat up to 44 in our cellar, it is easy to make a show for most organized groups. Larger groups are often split into smaller groups and rotated in collaboration with other sightseeing tours. We partner with DMCs, tourist boards and even some hotels. We often host team buildings for companies from many countries, some of them recurringly. Lately, we even added extra options like catering or presentation tech if the client wants to stay longer. Two years ago, we moved to the current cellar, situated just under the hotel, so the guests can comfortably move to their rooms after tasting. As I said, we are strong in serving groups and their needs.
Q5: How can Slovakian winemakers gain further prominence in Europe?
For the last ten years, the Slovak wineries have been getting high rankings in international competitions. Still, for Slovakia, export is not vital since we (Slovak people) consume almost twice as much wine as we produce. Slovakian wines are unknown treasures for foreigners, and I strongly recommend everyone to visit Slovakia and enjoy them as much as possible.
“We can help Slovakian artisan wineries to grow double by delivering our wine tastings in the dark to more guests.”
Q6: What are your future plans? Do you plan to open new locations elsewhere in Slovakia?
We plan to grow and serve many more guests. These days, we offer tastings in fluent English, Italian and French. We wish to grow the team and thus offer live guided tastings in German, Spanish and Hungarian. We can help Slovakian artisan wineries to grow double by delivering our wine tastings in the dark to more guests.
Find out more about the tasting here: https://www.tmavadegustacia.sk/en/.
