Esteban Cabezas

Esteban Cabezas will teach almost all August courses. He will be in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and San Diego.

He is a partner in The Wine Academy of Spain, responsible of the Madrid office and coordinator of the Spanish Wine Education program. He has founded of the Wine Business School in conjunction with The Wine Academy of Spain and has developed and conducted courses on marketing, sales, communications and exports for numerous wineries and wine companies. He is a Master of Wine student, has completed all the WSET courses including Diploma and is a lecturer for the WSET and for the Spanish Wine Education program. He has become an expert in wine marketing with more than 15 years of experience working for large corporations such as Colgate–Palmolive, Allied-Domecq (today Pernord-Ricard) and Coca-Cola.

By Erica Green, from Bottle of Wine

I feel like I’ve woken the sleeping giant within myself. The giant that loves Spanish wines. Since starting to blog about wine, I’ve found a new interest and fascination with Spanish wines. My interest in the Spanish culture isn’t limited to wine. I’ve become conversational in the Spanish language over the past few years, and developed an appreciation for the rich, savory foods of Spain during a recent trip. The sleeping giant has woken up and there is no putting her back to sleep.

My experiences with Spanish wines have taught me to expect the unexpected. Simple, unassuming bottles of Cava that can standup to some of the world’s best Champagne houses. Aged Tempranillos, with dusty red fruits and relaxed tannins, provide an affordable match for an evening dinner. The most pleasant discovery, finding great bottles of Spanish wine for $10. They do exist. There are plenty of high quality, unique and affordable wines coming from Spain.

I’m rather “green” in my wine blogging career and wine drinking life, but I’m constantly in search of wine knowledge and education. Participating in the Wine Academy of Spain’s certification course in Chicago, IL gives me the opportunity to continue my growth in the wine blogging world and expand my wine knowledge. It would allow me to indulge in my passion for Spanish wine and continue learning about the Spanish culture and heritage.

*Note: This post was written for the Catavino Spanish Wine Education Scholarship.

Jesús Bernad

Jesús Bernad, is one of the new professors trained by Pancho Campo MW to teach the Spanish Wine Education Program and  will be in Houston TX in June 22, 23 and 24 at the Pappa’s Restaurant. The Wine Academy is very glad to have him in its team.

He studied oenology, viticulture and winemaking at the Escuela de la Vid in Madrid. He is a former sommelier and wine consultant at several restaurants in Madrid, Rioja, Cuba and Washington DC. and has attended numerous professional tasting courses in Spain, Australia and the United States.

Former wine consultant and faculty member for numerous wineries, wine courses and training programs for wine professionals: Marqués de Arienzo, Wines from Spain, González Byass and ICEX, amongst many others, he is also a wine writer who has published several books. Editor and wine director for several Spanish newspapers and magazines, he is a member of the jury for numerous international wine competitions.

Diploma

Visit Catavino.net to know more about this scholarship.

Starting on June 12th, the Wine Academy of Spain will begin its 2009-2010 USA tour. Following Catavino’s suggestions, the Wine they will give 1 free scholarship per USA city to a blogger. And although the Wine Academy of Spain is on the forefront of education, they are still in the beginning stages of utilizing on-line communication effectively; hence where we come in. Catavino will be responsible for the organization and development of this initiative.

Antonio Casado

For the next weeks I’ll be presenting our new teachers.
I’m glad to present you our first new teacher: Antonio Casado, who will be teaching in Denver, CO very soon.
After completing his Communication Studies in Madrid and London –where he also worked as branch manager for the wine merchant OddBins-, he returned to Spain where, for four years (2002-2006) he worked as coordinator, writer and main taster for the Guía Peñín de los Vinos de España, tasting an annual average of 4,000 Spanish wines during that period; he also wrote abundantly for Sibaritas wine magazine and attended different international wine contests (Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, Michelangelo International Wine Awards of South Africa, Concorso Enologico Internazionale of Vinitaly) as a member of the international jury. In 2007 he joined another wine magazine, Vino + Gastronomía, as wine editor, worked as technical director for the “Nariz de Oro” tasting contest and became the first Spanish journalist to interview Dr. Jay Miller when Spanish wines were awarded for the first time a hundred points rating in The Wine Advocate. In 2008, as a freelance journalist and translator, he worked extensively for El Mundo newspaper (Metrópoli and Magazine suplements) as well as other national and international media like SpainGourmetour, Revista del Aula Marqués de Arienzo, Flavours from France, Finewines and Simple Wines (Russia), and the Spanish edition of Whisky Magazine, of which he has just been appointed Deputy Editor.

For this reason, this week end, he is training 5 new teachers in “how to teach” about Spanish wines. All the new teachers are Spaniards or long living in Spain, they all have a high level of English and above all they are great wine professionals.

The training begins today and will last until Sunday, they will be explained organizational and logistic themes. They will taste most of the wines they will talk about during the future classes.

I’ll tell you more next week about who they are and I hope I’ll have some pictures to show.

London Internation Wine Fair

Rony and Esteban are at the London Internation Wine Fair today. It’s an occasion for them to talk about Wine Future Rioja 2009 to an international public and to promote Spanish wines and the SWEP.

If you want to meet them please call them. Rony Bacqué is our friendly Belgian sales manager who speaks Spanish, French, Dutch, English and German (and maybe some more I’m not aware of): +34 696 66 96 68 and Esteban Cabezas is our fast speaking deputy director who speaks Spanish and English: +34 629 228 763.

Have a nice Fair!

We had as special guest Jürgen Mathäß. The outstanding German wine critic and journalist, and Spanish wines specialist in Germany.

Visit: http://geisenheimer.wordpress.com/2009/04/24/geisenheim-international-mit-pancho-campo-spain-wine-academy/