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Vinitaly International Academy welcomes 24 new members

08 April 2019 By Phoebe French

The Vinitaly International Academy (VIA) has welcomed 23 new ambassadors and one new expert to its international community after its five-day course in March this year.

The course, which began on 29 March and ended on 2 April, saw new ambassadors and an expert welcomed into the VIA community, hailing from countries including Sweden, the UK, Ireland, the US, Japan, Italy, France, Poland, Hong Kong, UAE, Mexico, Australia and Switzerland.

Organised by Veronafiere and Vinitaly International with the support of ICE – the Italian Trade Agency – the VIA Italian Wine Ambassador course took place in Verona and saw 62 wine professionals from 22 different countries participate.

Commenting on the news, Stevie Kim, managing director of Vinitaly International, said: “The VIA Verona edition of 2019 was a bumper crop. The selection for our flagship course is very competitive and we have the privilege of choosing among the best pool of highly-qualified professionals. Overall, we now have 204 certified Italian Wine Ambassadors and Experts.

“It is important to underline that nearly 560 candidates have gone through the course to date and by the end of 2019 we estimate that the number of course participants will reach 800.”

The course, which has recently been restructured, has been taken to Hong Kong, Los Angeles and Chengdu, returning for its flagship edition in Verona to coincide with the start of Vinitaly.

This year’s intake included a high proportion of buyers, importers and sommeliers. Participants had the opportunity to taste 320 wines over four days of the course and listened to presentations from the VIA team.

Newly-appointed Italian Wine Ambassador and US-based sommelier Jennifer Burgess said: “I am absolutely amazed about how in-depth we are going into a few different areas, particularly with the soil structure. I find that we are getting a lot more of information that I have had access to in prior courses. I find the walk-around tastings really amazing: to have the opportunity to try as many wines that we are trying and to compare and contrast as many different varieties coming from different parts of Italy or from different producers, and generally the depth of information. I found this to be an exceptional course.”

Fellow Italian Wine Ambassador Annette Lizotte, originally from Sweden, added: “I really appreciated how the course put together all the different aspects: the history of the country and the history of wine-making in general. So, grape by grape, I started to discover a completely new aspect of Italy that I didn’t know, even after living here for 14 years, after working in the wine business, and after my sommelier education. And it is fantastic to share the knowledge and the tasting notes with people from all over the world that are passionate about Italian wine. This is something really special. Also, the possibility to taste the wines that we don’t get in the countries where we live – there are some grape varieties and related wines that haven’t arrived in Sweden yet – this was really something fantastic.”

The full list of successful course participants is below.

VIA Italian Wine Expert:

Niklas Bergqvist, wine consultant, Sweden Italian Wine Ambassadors: –

VIA Italian Wine Ambassadors:

Luiz Batistello, sommelier, France

Alex White, sommelier, US

Paul Caputo, journalist, UK

Jingjing Sui, marketing and sales professional, Italy

Mayumi Fukumura, journalist, Japan

Monika Zakrzewska, wine consultant, Ireland

Katarzyna Kordas, importer, Poland

Ezra Wicks, wine educator, US