Tokyo is a city which boasts numerous wine academies targeted both at trade professionals and wine lovers. The influx of students attending this type of academy is on the rise; particularly noticeable is the increase in the number of 20 to 40 year-old women who have enrolled, especially over the last two decades.

However, most courses taught at Japanese academies are mainly centred on French wines, devoting negligible time, if any, to Spanish wines. In order to change this situation, the Spanish Foreign Trade Agency Office in Tokyo has decided to carry out a series of specific courses in relation to Spanish wines targeted at academy tutors. The aim is to help tutors to acquire greater knowledge relating to Spanish products, encouraging them to increase the teaching time allocated as well as hopefully persuading them to devote whole courses to Spanish wines. To date, the first of a series of four courses has been given, in which 12 tutors from 6 different academies took part. The course, which received positive feed-back, was led by Kunio Bansho, expert wine journalist at ‘Wands’ magazine.

The regions studied during the course are: Rioja, Rías Baixas, Ribera del Duero, Rueda, Toro, Bierzo, Penedés, Priorato, Cava, La Mancha, Valdepeñas, Jumilla, Jerez and Málaga y Sierras de Málaga.
The wines used in the various tastings carried out as part of the course content are provided by various importers.