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Wines of Chile launch Asia ‘Academy’
Meeting Asia’s increased interest in Chilean wine, Wines of Chile has established the first WoC Academy in China and Hong Kong.
Wines of Chile Educators, Roddy Ropner and Jennie Mack from AWSEC
The Academy will offer structured courses for wine professionals and enthusiasts to discover the history of Chilean wine, regions, grape varieties and styles and WoC hopes to tap into the market potential of Asia – especially China.
“Chile has strong relations with China. It was the first South American country who established diplomatic relations with the country and we are celebrating 10 years of the signing of a Free Trade Agreement with China this year,” said César Suarez, Trade Commissioner of Prochile said to db at the launch.
“The average growth of Chile Wine exports to China since 2010 is 37 per cent in volume, and 41 per cent in value. We can see that Chinese people are very interested in Chile and its wines.”
The whole Academy programme has been developed by WoC and AWSEC and encompasses three certification levels:
1. Ambassador, a three-hour class which is taught in English and offers six wines for tasting and a brief overview of Chile’s wine landscape
2. Specialist, a six-hour class offering 12 wines and a more in depth look at Chile’s differing wine regions and sub regions, including viticulture and vinification trends.
3. Maestro (Master), a 5-10 day trip to Chile including visiting 10 wineries with a WoC wine educator.
Julio Alonso, WoC’s Asia director said: “Chile is such a diverse country and yet people are not too aware of our wines. We’ve partnered with 11 Chilean wineries which represent the different terroirs, grapes and expressions of Chile and we are keen to develop people’s knowledge. There’s a lack of education worldwide on Chile but we’ve seen in previous visits that the Chinese are keen to become ambassadors.”
Ambassador level courses will start in Hong Kong from September and are priced at HK$480/RMB 480. Further information is available on the AWSEC website.