Education

(From the Academie du Vin website.)

The Academie du Vin was founded in Paris in 1972 by a British wine authority, Steven Spurrier. His mission was to convey the pleasures of wine to people who are not accustomed to drinking it. From this passion, he created the Comparison tasting method, which became the global standard, and the best method for learning about wine.

In 1976, Steven Spurrier organized the Paris Wine Tasting, which made a significant impact to the wine community around the world. The blind tasting match between French wine and California wine, by Nine French wine experts ended in a landslide victory for the California wine. (For, it was strongly believed at the time that French wine was far and away more superior to California wine.) Shattering the myth of French wine superiority was a significant milestone to the wine industry, and allowed for the expansion and promotion of wine production throughout the new world.

In 1987 Academie du Vin Tokyo was founded following the style of Academie du Vin Paris. It was not an easy beginning trying to spread the pleasure of tasting and drinking wine in Japan where there was not an established custom to drink wine. However, as a result of around 20 years of effort, the Academie du Vin became the No.1 wine school in Japan. Today around 4000 students a year study at our school, and more than 30,000 students have completed our curriculum. Almost all of the graduates are playing important roles in various fields including: the airline industry, restaurants, hotels, wine-distributors, travel agencies and the financial industry. Because of our continuing success in Tokyo, we have been able to open other Academie du Vin schools in Osaka (1988) and Nagoya（2008）.

We, Academie du Vin, are a pioneer in the field of wine education. Our hope is to further contribute to the expansion of wine culture and develop a stronger partnership with wine industry.

The Academie du Vin offers two courses in English: Wine Basics for Wine Enthusiasts and Exploring the World of Wine.

JAL Academy in Ginza offers the WSET Advanced Certificate in English twice a year. The course is divided among 16 sessions covering the wines of the world in addition to tasting, viticulture, vinification and more.The class meets once a week for 2 hours, with the first hour devoted to instruction and the second typically spent tasting and discussing wines.

About WSET
The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) was founded in 1969 to provide high quality education and training in wines and spirits.  Since then, WSET has grown into the foremost international body in the field of wines and spirits education, with a suite of sought-after qualifications. It now even has a membership body - the Institute of Wines & Spirits - for those who have passed the WSET Diploma, the top qualification. In addition to courses and qualifications for those in the 'trade', WSET has an increasing number of 'consumers', or enthusiasts, who attend courses.  They may attend a course because of a wish to gain a formal qualification or simply a desire to enhance their knowledge of the ever-increasing variety of wines and spirits being produced in the world today.