our team

Byron P. Catéchis

Director & Dean

Byron teaches in: French, German, English and Italian languages

WSET® Educator for the following Wine and Spirit Education Trust Qualifications:

  • Level 1 Award in Wine
  • Level 2 Award in Wine
  • Level 3 Award in Wine
  • Level 1 Award in Spirits
  • Level 2 Award in Spirits

Educator for the Comité Champagne course: 

  • Level 4 – Champagne Specialist

Member of the following judging panels:

  • Concours suisse des produits du terroir
  • Forum Romand des eaux-de-vie, Switzerland
  • International Wine Challenge
  • Séléction des vins de Neuchâtel
  • Schweizer Schnapsforum
  • Distisuisse 2025
  • International Alpine Food Contest ’24

Professional Experience:

Over 20 years of experience in the 4 to 5 Star Deluxe hotel and Michelin Star segment. To date involved in 5 hotel and 1 restaurant opening which included the Dorchester in London, the Lous C. Jacob in Hamburg, a Hotel in East Africa (part of an international hotel chain) among others. 

  Wine knowledge courses – our lecturers

Johanna Dayer

Johanna teaches in the French and English language

Johanna has been interested in wine since passing her Swiss Matura diploma and continued in this path on her way to gaining her Bachelor degree with the Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne. She has completed the various levels of the Wine and Spirit Education Trust qualifications, including the WSET® Level 4 Diploma.

Now having completed her exams on the Masters of Wine programme, she now has to complete her thesis. Johanna has managed to keep herself busy by also studying for a Masters in Digital Marketing and Communication in Geneva. Johanna is currently also involved in the production and marketing of Clos Tsampehro in Valais. Johanna also consults for a wine producer in Provence, France.

Johanna teaches on the Level 2 and the Level 3 WSET® Award in Wine course as well as runs our courses in Valais. She is also our “Internal Assessor” for the Level 3 WSET® Award in Wines. 

Our Resident Craft Brewer: Beer & Brewing courses – our lecturers

Thomas Eldridge

Thomas teaches in the French and English language

Nominated Educator for our WSET® Beer courses

Thomas is currently head of bottling and quality at a large regional brewery in Western Switzerland, where he is responsible for the day-to-day running of the bottling line and team. He is also responsible for the in-house laboratory for quality control. An award-wining brewer, he has a proven track record at both microbreweries and larger, regional breweries.

As well as being an experienced teacher, he also serves regularly as a jury member of international beer competitions.

Thomas teaches the following courses:

  • Level 1 Introduction to Beer and Beer Service
  • Level 2 WSET® Award in Beer
  • Seminars on specific aspects of the Brewing process

Nathan Rüttner

Nathan teaches in the German and French languages

Nathan teaches on our practical brewing courses

Our team for distilling:  
   

Our canine teaching assistants

you will probably meet either Merlin and Arthur in one of our classes. They are trained to reduce your stress levels.

Merlin & Arthur

Since the 21st of September 2018 Merlin became an important member of our team while still a puppy (10 weeks old). Arthur joined the team on the 9th of March 2020 and is learning from his elder “brother” how to improve the class’ wellbeing.

 

course locations

Zug – Baar

From Baar railway station, you can reach the location by bus to the “Metro” stop or by tram (line S1) to the “Neufeld” stop. The journey takes just a few minutes in either case.

HSO Wirtschafts- & Informatikschule

Neuhofstrasse 3a

6340 Baar

Tel: 058 680 14 87

Bern – until 31.07.2026

Train station “Deisswil”, 14 minutes with the S7 from the main train station in Berne, train every 15 minutes

The Beverage Institute

Bernapark 1

3066 Deisswil (Stettlen)

Tel: 033 533 25 21

Bern – from 01.08.2026

14 minutes walk from Berne main train station or 2 minutes by bus. Entrance beside CooP

HSO Wirtschafts- und Informatikschule

Länggassstrasse 35

3012 Bern

Tel: 058 680 14 49

Bern – Thun

The Lab Hotel (HF Thun)

Mönchstrasse 37

3600 Thun

Fribourg

GastroFribourg

Chemin des Primevères 15

1700 Fribourg

Tel: 026 424 65 29

Neuchâtel

Eureka-Formation.ch

Route de Soleure 14

2072 St Blaise

Tel: 032 344 80 85

Ticino – Tenero (Locarno)

Matasci Vini SA

Villa Jelmini Events
Via Stazione 10
CH – 6598 Tenero (Locarno)
Tel: 091 735 60 11

Valais

 

ritzy formation continue

Techno Ark 3

3960 Sierre

Tel: 058 606 90 31

Valais – Martigny

Hôtel Vatel

Rue Marconi 19

CH-1920 Martigny

tel: 027 720 13 13

Valais – Sierre

Château de Villa

Rue de Ste-Catherine 4

3960 Sierre

Valais – Visp

Visp, Saal HES-SO

Bahnhofplatz 1b

CH-3930 Visp

 

accreditations & partners

We are accredited/certified by

The Wine and Spirit Education Trust (since 2002)

Qualifications offered in 80 countries in 15 languages.

An organisation with educational charity status, the WSET® is the only wine and spirit educational entity approved by the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the UK government’s regulator for education. We are currently accredited by the Wine and Spirit Education Trust to offer all courses up to the Diploma level. We are currently not eligible to offer the Diploma course, but aim to offer it in the near future.

As of January 2024 we are an official centre for courses leading to the qualifications of Champagne Education. Check out the next dates for our Champagne specialist courses…

We are an official examination centre for the Institute of Brewing and Distilling examinations. The IBD qualifications are recognised in over 100 countries in the world.

Our courses support candidates in the preparation leading to the IBD qualifications in Brewing and Distilling by covering the practical aspect

Our partners & customers:​​​​

 

 
 
 
 
 

 

 


Our malts are supplied by:

 

Our partner for Brewery hygiene:

For your brewery hoses:

Cleaning, service and rental of kegs:

Continue reading “accreditations & partners”

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