Why I'm taking the course - Elisa Albella

Wine means....

I cannot remember a single Sunday lunch without wine at home. Wine means family to me, wine means coming together, wine means enjoying the food and life.

Coming from Spain, I have grown up surrounded by a very strong wine culture. My family comes from the North of Spain where there are many wine yards, where “La Rioja” wine is made. Indeed, I can remember my grandfather giving me a sip of wine when I was little as a way of “educating” me, or my father having wine in every single meal.

It wasn’t until after high school that I became more interested about the industry, when I got the right to drink it, of course... I believe the different options, the different intensities of flavor and smell and the huge world behind the industry captured me.

I was not alone in this passion, I had the luck to have friends whose families worked in the industry. We organized some trips with friends to the different regions in Spain where wine is cultivated (La Rioja, Ribera del Duero), where we learnt about the different grapes and methodologies of the process of making wine. After one of these trips, one of my friends whose family owned a small private vineyard decided to register the brand and started commercializing it “for fun”. I helped her with the design of the brand and the distribution of the product. I have to admit the wine in question is not the best one I have tried, but we managed to set up a young brand which was appealing to young customers and five years later the wine is still in the market (see picture below of the brand design).

Another friend’s family runs Cavinsa, which is the exclusive distributor of “Luis Cañas” and “José Pariente” in Spain, two of the wines that have gained the most popularity recently. They have become the option by excellence to buy or order in a restaurant thanks to a competitive price (~25€ per bottle), a good quality (>92 points), an easiness of drinking and an extremely powerful communication.

Having lived these two wine business examples I had no doubt when I came across this course. Not only I am a wine lover in terms of how much I enjoy it and how emotional it makes me, but also in terms of my interest for the industry as a business. I am really excited to learn in a more serious and formal way about it, specially about the industry trends in the world and not only in Europe. After the first class, I was impressed and curious about how the industry is changing across the world: how Chinese consumption is booming, how new countries are entering the market, etc.

In conclusion, I’m hoping to learn while enjoying and having fun with one of the things I love the most in life: WINE.