Congratulations to Neil Teague, SWS, for passing the Spanish Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Neil:
I am a Wine Enthusiast. Living in Adelaide, South Australia, within 90 minutes drive of 4 major wine regions (Clare Valley, Barossa Valley, Adelaide Hills and McLaren Vale), I have always had an interest in wine, and holiday travel usually includes visits to wine regions amongst other attractions. Over the last 10 years, I have visited and tasted in wine areas of France, Italy, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Chile, Argentina, Canada and USA. Many of the wines from small producers are made in such small quantities, that they just don't make it to Australia, so it is delightful to be able to taste these wines in their local wine region and to learn about some of the local grape varieties that are sometimes rarely seen in Australia.
In the last few years I have increased my wine knowledge by following the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) study program, and obtaining my WSET Level 1, 2 and 3 Awards in Wines and Spirits, which gave me a broad knowledge of the major wines of the world. I then joined the Wine Scholar Guild to delve into greater detail about Old-World wines, and obtained the French Wine Scholar (FWS) and recently the Spanish Wine Scholar (SWS). I am also keen to explore the Italian Wine Scholar program and possibly some of the master-level French wine programs.
The SWS course material, printed and online, is well written and structured and I would highly recommend it to anyone that wants to expand their knowledge of Spanish wine.
After following the SWS program, and learning so much about not just Spanish wine, but also the history and geography of Spain, I am very keen to visit a number of Spanish wine regions to learn more about them and to enjoy the wonderful food and wine of Spain.
