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DOCa Rioja Contro Board opens registration for 2018 Wine Educators programme

Published:  23 November, 2017

Registration is open for the 2018 Rioja Wine Educators programme run by DOCa Rioja Control Board.

The initiative, which has run for two years previously, trains professionals about Rioja wine and on completion of the course they become Control Board approved educators.

The programme is selective about admitting candidates as it wants these people to influence major wine consuming countries on the product. The first two courses saw more than 250 candidates that already had extensive experience in the wine world in the areas of communication, education and sommerlierie, retail sales and distribution take the course.

This year entries from China and Spain will be selected in separate categories due to the high number of entries from these countries in 2017.

The education programme includes an online course available in Spanish and English with a test and a final paper. Further training will be conducted alongside other students at a week in Rioja. Those completing the programme will attend the week in three groups from China, Spain and the third group from other countries.

Riccardo Aguiriano, marketing director said: “We are proud of the success of the past two Rioja Wine Educators programmes and next year we expect to close with 57 official Rioja educators from 19 countries.

“Our training is first class and these educators will help us take Rioja to the next level.”

Registration is open until 31 January, 2018 and candidates will be chosen based on their CV and communication skills. They must also have tow years experience in the world of wine in marketing, education, sommelier, wine retail sales and wine distribution.

According to the organization 2017 has seen continued growth in Rioja with an average bottle currently 21% higher than the Spanish category.

Rioja also accounts for 49.4% of the Spanish wine category by value and 38.9% by volume.

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