Vinitaly aiming for 300 Italian Wine Ambassadors

The Vinitaly International Academy is hoping to recruit a slew of new certified Italian Wine Ambassadors this year, taking its total number of ambassadors to 300.

The VIA team is working to stage the advanced-level Italian Wine Ambassador certification in Verona from 10-14 April 2020, shortly before Vinitaly.

With five advanced Italian Wine Ambassador courses in Italy and 10 overseas held from 2015 to 2019, this year the VIA will run five Wine Ambassador courses, including one in Atlanta in June, Seattle in July, and Houston in August.

“The steady growth in the number of certified ambassadors goes hand in hand with the expansion of the VIA alumni community of wine professionals who attended VIA courses without necessarily gaining the certification, so, the 615 candidates of 2019 will potentially reach 800 by the end of 2020,” said VIA founder, Stevie Kim.

“We are talking about a solid base of specialists based in over 36 countries who can become dedicated collaborators,” Kim added.

Another area of development for the VIA in 2020 is its course offer. In addition to the flagship Italian Wine Ambassador certification, the VIA will also teach the intermediate-level Italian Wine Maestro course globally, with up to 40 Maestro courses being offered worldwide this year.

The VIA’s objective for 2020 is to certify an additional 100 educators who will go on to teach Maestro courses in their respective markets.

The Vinitaly International Academyis set to finalise the pilot of its lower-level Italian Wine Fellow course that will be rolled out globally in 2021.