Delving beyond the “mumbo jumbo” with Dutch Wine Apprentice’s Niels Aarts
How did tech consultant Niels Aarts create one of the Netherlands’ leading wine platforms? We speak to the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Dutch Wine Apprentice as he launches its new-look website, to hear how his new-found love of wine turned into a crucial industry resource.
Niels Aarts likes to take up one new hobby every year – maybe learning a new language or playing golf. In 2020, during lockdown, he embarked on his WSET Level 2 to teach himself about wine.
“I was always intrigued by it, but I didn't really drink wine at that point,” Niels tells us. “So it was new to me. The stories behind it and what makes wine so unique – like every bottle, every vintage, but also every producer and every grape – there's so much variation that it's difficult for an outsider to understand. So I thought the best thing to do was just to take a course.”
That led to an Instagram account chronicling his studies as the “Dutch Wine Apprentice” and, after quickly amassing a ream of followers, he broadened his scope to include long reads, wine reviews and interviews – all designed to bring the stories that had so intrigued him to life from a wine enthusiast’s perspective. Specifically, he focuses on fine wine, and the leading wineries of the world.
In 2022, Niels brought on a team of writers, and not one but two podcasts followed. Grape Masters focuses on producers from what he calls the “champions league” of wineries, offering personal stories behind the wines as well as commercial insights into “strategy, business, and what makes them a successful wine brand.” Meanwhile Chefs & Cellars puts that into context through interviews with figures from the Dutch gastronomy scene (be they chefs, sommeliers or restaurateurs), discussing wine lists, pairings, cellar management and more.
As well as providing an interesting platform for wine lovers, Dutch Wine Apprentice has proved a useful tool for sommeliers looking for colour – beyond technical facts – about the wines they’re serving their guests.
“Talking to people that work in the business every day – doing the interviews, but also being at events – you start to understand that you need to focus on a different side of a wine’s story,” he says. “Because a lot of people will focus on technical specifications with wine, but why would people read our website or content if it's only technical mumbo jumbo? I want the story, to know the heart of it.”
By working with importers and distributors from an early stage, Niels, who has a background in IT, has also managed to place Dutch Wine Apprentice firmly within the Netherlands’ wine industry.
“I come from a business-to-business world,” he says. “When it comes to content creation about wine, people don't really work with importers but, for me, it's a great way to get connections, build a network. It's also a great way to be in the same space where those sommeliers are. Because those importers, they organise all the tastings and the events, and that's where the sommeliers are. So since day one we started doing that, and I've been immersed in that group of customers because I was tagging along with them. We sort of slipped in between and, especially in the Netherlands, importers know us and they invite us where they normally don't like press at an event like that.”
Today, Dutch Wine Apprentice has more than 25 writers and 25,000 followers across its channels. And this month, Niels has refreshed the website and resolved to focus even more greatly on gastronomy, with information on restaurant openings and goings-on – as well as those all-important wine stories, of course. They also join Star Wine List of the Year Belgium and Netherlands 2025 as a media partner.
Visit Dutch Wine Apprentice to learn more.
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