New wine business course offers a unique global blend

The 10-day program is the first product of a partnership between the University of Adelaide’s Adelaide Business School and the Bordeaux-based KEDGE Wine and Spirit Academy. Recently launched at Vinexpo, Hong Kong, the Asia-Pacific wine industry’s annual exhibition and conference, the course is open to the global wine community and will offer participants the opportunity to learn from the best minds from both regions.

Marni Ladd, Director of the university’s Wine Business Program, said the course presented a unique opportunity for the international wine community. “The course will give participants access to the best academics and business leaders from two of the world’s premier wine regions. They will not just learn about the science of wine, but about the business of wine too,” she said.

Program participants will be immersed in each region for five days and will be exposed to intimate learning opportunities including vineyard tours and master classes lead by chief winemakers.  A tailored academic program taught by experts from the two institutions will cover subjects such as research and development, global market insights, and wine marketing and consumer behaviour.

Bordeaux, with its famous wineries often over-looked by beautiful chateaux, is paradise for wine lovers. With vineyards covering more than 115,000 hectares and over 2000 years of winemaking tradition, Bordeaux’s viticultural practices are steeped in history and tradition.

Juxtaposed with Bordeaux, the South Australian wine industry is a comparative adolescent. Bordeaux may be the older, wiser relation but South Australia, with its own New World ideology, has a unique proposition which has earned itself a place amongst the world’s most prestigious wine regions. Adelaide’s wine status was confirmed in 2016 when it became a member of the exclusive group of Great Wine Capitals of the World, securing its place alongside Bordeaux.

“This polarity is what makes this program so unique,” Professor Jacques-Olivier Pesme, Director of the KEDGE Wine & Spirits Academy said at Vinexpo.  “With the contrasting wine-making histories and different experiences between France and Australia, participants will be exposed to two vastly different, but complimentary, perspectives.”

The program was met with huge enthusiasm by industry professionals at Vinexpo. 

The new program, which will be the start of a series of initiatives, has come about through a memorandum of understanding which Adelaide Business School signed with the KEDGE Wine and Spirit Academy in March 2017. The MOU formalised an important relationship between the two academic institutions and solidified their commitment to share learning and practices from each region.  The shared knowledge will help each region to respond successfully to changes in the sometimes volatile global wine market.

The new international program is expected to commence in Adelaide this November, with participants visiting Bordeaux in May 2019.

Places are limited, but the program will run yearly.  Interested parties are encouraged to register their interest at business.adelaide.edu.au.

This article is presented by The University of Adelaide