German wine tasting at Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa, Maldives

Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa, the award-winning luxurious hideaway resort owned and managed by Bangkok-based Six Senses, is hosting a prestigious wine tasting on Kunfunadhoo Island in the Maldives from October 10-15. The tasting will be presented by Iris Ellmann, well-known connoisseur and distributor of select German vintages.

Wine-lovers will have the rare opportunity to sample and learn about a selection of wines made by three noted producers from various areas of Germany.

Ranging from easy-drinking, to more serious vintages and dessert wines, the featured producers are:

Weingut Bercher from Baden, Germany's most southern wine-producing area, producing mainly Pinots.

Weingut Heyl zu Herrnsheim of Rheinhessen in the mid-west of the country, renowned for Riesling and Silvaner.

Weingut Wirsching from Franken in the east, famed for distinctive styles and bottles with Silvaner, Riesling and Mueller Thurgau grape varietals.

Continuing a tradition of special events for wine-lovers at Six Senses hotels and resorts, the Soneva Fushi wine-tastings are priced at just US$50 per person. 

A specially selected range of fine German wines will also be served at a 6-course dinner, priced at US$125, at the resort's fine dining restaurant "Me Dhuniye". The menu will be created by Executive Chef Mr Remon Alphenaar.

Iris Ellmann, a German living in England, is well-known as Managing Director of the WineBarn, a UK wine importer specialising in Germany's little-known fine wines.

"Living in England, I was unable to find any decent German wine and found myself subjected to banal and totally misguided comments about the vintages produced, so I decided to take up the challenge and do something about it," she said.

As a result, the WineBarn was born and has since received rave reviews. Wine-writer Tim Atkin commented in the UK newspaperThe Observer: "Well done Iris Ellmann for having the courage to try. Her list is small, focusing on only half a dozen growers, but the wines are intelligently chosen and a welcome antidote to the dilute, sugary flavours of most mainstream German wine."

In The Guardian, Malcolm Gluck, reporting on a wine trade fair, also commended on The WineBarn. "Hundreds of bottles passed my nose. None impressed me more," he wrote, hailing two in particular as "an astonishing mouthful".

Any travellers passionate about excellent wines and in need of a well-deserved holiday at a resort ranked by Conde Nast Traveller among the world's best, should join Iris and other connoisseur guests in the "back to nature" tranquillity of a private island, at Soneva Fushi Resort & Spa from October 10-15, 2002.

Six Senses is a Hotel, Resort and Spa Management and Development Company established in 1995, which owns the award-winning Soneva Fushi Resort in the Maldives and manages hotels and resorts under the brand names Soneva and Evason. 

Soneva is a "beyond stars" boutique brand of luxury resorts whose "Intelligent Luxury" philosophy is to offer luxuries of the highest international standard together with a sensitivity and local feel in design, architecture and service. 

Evason is a five star category where attention to detail is also a driving force and whose philosophy of "Redefining Experiences" results in very innovative properties. 

Six Senses' portfolio of luxury resorts has lately expanded with the new Soneva Gili Resort -- with 44 'water villas' on stilts -- in the Maldives, together with two new Evason Resort & Spa properties in Phuket and Hua Hin, Thailand.