The following international partners form part of this network:

• Universitè du Vin, Suze-la-Rousse, France (General wine education, viticulture & oenology, sommelier)
• University of Padua, Italy (viticulture, oenology & sommeliership)
• Virginia Tech University, USA (viticulture and oenology)
• Texas State University, USA (wine marketing)
• Plumpton College, UK (General, wine marketing, viticulture & oenology)
• German Wine School (General, wine marketing, viticulture & oenology)
• Austria Wine Academy (largest wine school of Europe)
• University of Surrey UK (Consisting of a group of lecturers in Wine Marketing, Hospitality, Hotel training and Sommeliership,)
• EIT-University of East Hawke’s, Bay, NZ.

As important and vital as the University is the co-operation of the world-famous Collalto wine estate, (which has been making quality wines for more than a 1 000 years!), courtesy of one of our former students: Princess Isabella Collalto de Croÿ. Collalto Estate is an Estate which has not forgotten how important the soil is, the value of caring for the grapevine and making outstanding wines by using modern, up-to-date equipment and methods, but methods where family traditions and experience are also integrated, to produce a wine, which is not only an icon of its place and vintage, but also an ambassador for the patience and skills of its winemaker and the traditions of the family which has helped to create it (these are qualities which this Academy shares completely). They therefore have strong links with the Slowfood movement.  The Collalto family of San Salvatore Castle, nestling in its green vineyards, is such a family. They have always known that it takes more than simple science and marketing experts to produce a wine which is elegant and filled with a sense of place and tradition. And this they have done for more than 1000 years!

Collalto will become a preferred venue for our residential and short courses, practicums, wine conferences, workshops, wine trips as well as wine tastings. These will be held at Collalto's premises and winery in Susegana in the Veneto, close to Venice.  It is also conveniently located very near the campus of the University of Padua, at Conegliano.

Accommodation for our students is easily available in the near vicinity, and limited, very basic student-type accommodation can possibly also be arranged by Collalto at their own premises.

Free wine courses!
In order to introduce you to the high standard of our e-learning wine courses and training, and to familiarise you with our secure, dedicated e-learning Platform, you can send us an email to register for 1 of the following free short courses, each consisting of 2 lectures:

“Wine and Food Pairing” or “The Ideal wine Cellar”

Mission, History and Future
The basis of the EUROPEAN WINE ACADEMY was formed in the late 1990's in Belgium and South Africa, when the Academy's founder started providing standard f2f wine education, but EWA itself was formalized in late 2003 when we started offering wine courses via e-learning, as a result of a contract with the Commonwealth Academy in London, to provide wine courses to their students. We have since expanded our presence by opening satellite campuses and Learning Centres, in Germany, North America, South America, the Mediterranean (Malta), the Caribbean, the Netherlands and South Africa. We’re currently in negotiation to set up satellite campuses in China, India, and Japan.

Because of our belief in shared learning we have been working on setting up such joint learning programs and strategic partnerships with other international wine schools – as can be seen with the China Project above- and it is therefore an important goal of our Mission that our College will, in time, become the main wine educational teaching institution using e-learning! EWA and its strategic partners will liaise, fine-tune and possibly expand the current curriculum specifically for e-Learning and blended learning. These Wine Schools partners will then deliver all work shops and field trips in their own areas and in addition may second tutors for the e-learning programs. In any region where EWA has such a Wine School partner EWA will arrange for those of its students who wish to follow a course on an f2f basis, to follow such course at its Wine School partner. A list of such partners will be placed on the News section. To date we have been in discussion with wine schools in Germany, England, Italy, New Zealand and a Wine Marketing Institute in the USA.

Our goal
The goal of the EWA is essentially the promotion of the study of the grape, wine and spirits via higher, vocational and professional education - it is aimed not only at winemaking or viticulture but also at the oenological, retail, wholesale, export, business, management and hospitality side of the wine and spirits industry.

We want our students to acquire a comprehensive knowledge of the grape, its viticulture and vinification, wine and spirits in all it's guises, as well as the tasting and serving of wine; and all of this at a fairly high academic standard, our firm conviction being that if we provide a course of an unacceptably low academic standard we would only be producing inferior and badly-prepared students, whereas our clear and definite wish is in fact the opposite: to provide an education and training which will empower students and even provide them with excellent career possibilities.

Long-term planning
Our long-term goal, and many of our professional courses are designed with this in mind, is to eventually be able to offer some of our courses as a Bachelor’s degree. Whilst this will take some time, we believe that the academic standard of our professional courses is high enough that we will eventually be able to achieve this. We have already commenced discussions with two universities in Europe in this regard. 

Wine Business School

One of the most important goals we set ourselves in the formation of this College was to offer wine and spirits business, marketing and management courses, in addition to courses on Sommeliership, Viticulture, Oenology and Wine Production, which could help form, motivate and train wine professionals, at all levels.

In our experience there is far too little emphasis placed upon the proper training of wine and spirits professionals. Yet properly motivated and trained wine and spirits professionals could make a tremendous difference to the promotion of wine knowledge– and appreciation, thereby boosting wine sales, and even helping to reduce the current worldwide oversupply of wine!

Because of this, and to show that we consider this to be a very different type of wine education, seeking a different outcome, and at a higher level, we have set up a separate division within the EWA, which we prefer to call our Wine Business School, to co-ordinate the design and curricula of these result-orientated courses specifically for wine professionals.

Teaching method
All our courses have the same standard of excellence, they differ only in the method in which they are delivered and in the differing motivation of students: the student following our e-learning courses will do so for very specific reasons: highly motivated students who cannot, (usually because of their geographical location), follow a course in a regular class room environment because of their work schedules, family needs or other reasons.

We use the following three teaching systems:

• E-learning (also known as Distance Education), is the main form of education, particularly for the longer courses.
  
  What is e-learning (Distance Education) and what are its advantages?
  Simply put, distance education, or e-learning, takes place when a tutor and his/her students are separated geographically from each other by physical distance, and by using technology (i.e. voice, video, data, and print), this instructional gap is bridged.
  
  Or put slightly differently: e-learning is an educational system that uses technology: print, audio, video and computers, to reach learners in dispersed locations. However, it is learner-centred in philosophy: that means that rather than simply bringing students piles of packaged information, we engage you in an active educational experience that enhances your professional and personal capacities.
  
  This type of program can provide adults with a chance at tertiary education and reach those disadvantaged by limited time, distance, opportunity or physical disability.
  
  Many distance education students have jobs, and/or families. They must therefore manage their time very carefully by co-ordinating the different areas of their lives which influence each other - their families, jobs, spare time, and studies. 
  
  E-learning has evolved tremendously in the recent past , as Gráinne Conole and Karen Fill state: ”E-learning is now no longer a peripheral activity, the province of the isolated enthusiast, but is pervading Higher Education (HE), not just as an effective infrastructure for distance courses but blended with more traditional approaches on campus. Indeed, Carr-Chellman & Duchastel (2000) went as far as to term it a "new online paradigm [which] calls not so much for providing instruction at a distance, as for making available learning resources and instructional activities to students." In effect, the context is a potentially rich learning environment, where "students are typically engaged in multiple activities in pursuit of multiple learning goals, with the teacher serving the role of coach and facilitator."
  
  Who should take e-learning courses and how does it work?
  If you like the idea of being in control of your own learning and have a real interest in the subjects you have selected, then yes. If you just see it as a way of getting out of going to regular face-to-face classes, then no. It's a very rewarding way to learn but you need to be well-organised and prepared to take responsibility for your own learning. Our tutors realise that there may be times when you need a bit of extra encouragement and support. They are there to help you as much as they can.
  
  
• Blended Learning
  In addition we also offer our courses via blended learning, which is a combination of e-learning and normal, face-to-face classes. In other words the bulk of the course will be offered via e-learning and a smaller part will be offered via regular, face-to-face lectures/workshops or practicums.
  
  These learner-centred approaches put the learners back in command, with a wealth of learning resources at their fingertips, customized to their individual needs. Teachers and trainers, however, continue to play a central role, using virtual and traditional face-to-face interactions with their students in a 'blended' approach. 
  
  
• Regular Courses
  To a very limited extent, and only where at least 10/12 students register for a course will we offer regular, f2f (face-to-face) courses.
  

E-Learning Platform

• All our students’ course works (except for work shops and practicums (the practical work shops which form part of certain courses such as winemaking) are conducted via our secure, dedicated and interactive e-learning platform. Our e-learning platform is password double-encrypted and students have access to it 24/7. It uses the very latest, yet simple to use, technologies thus ensuring a dynamic learning environment. Students do not have to download any specific software; all that is required is an internet connection.
• Students receive their lessons from the platform; read the latest news and relevant articles, and up-load their assignments there as well.
• Because of the nature of e-learning start dates for courses are flexible, so you can start at any time.
• The lectures offered at the rate of 1 lecture per week, and each lecture contains certain compulsory assignments or quizzes, which are uploaded by the student via the eLearning platform. 
• There is no average length for a lecture, this is determined by the contents, but you should allow yourself at least 1 to 2 hours per week for the compulsory assignments, which form part of every lecture.
• Students are also able to chat to other students, use the quizzes to prepare for the exams and keep an on-line Journal.
  Click: http://platform.europeanwineacademy.org/
• Courses are also available in German, Spanish, French, Chinese and Dutch, in addition to English, which is the main language of tuition for the College. As we develop our program new Courses will be introduced and this could mean that certain courses walktall@telenet.bemay be offered in multiple languages.

Tutors and Course Advisers
We use internationally-based tutors and course advisers, each one an expert in his/her field and in order to ensure that our courses remain at a high standard and remain up-to-date. Courses are, in practice, offered exclusively by Distance Education ("e-learning") but in some centres, where there is a sufficient demand for it, we also use local lecturers and tutors to offer regular class-room (f2f) courses (see below).  

Our wine teaching philosophy
The European Wine Academy was the brain child of a group of passionate wine makers, wine professionals, sommeliers, wine educators, journalists, writers, wine consultants, importers and retailers: highly committed people and all of whom agreed on a few core issues:

• that most wine courses are too amateurishly presented, and even though experienced professionals are sometimes used, the tutors are for the most part book-educated wine hobbyists
• the current theoretical and academic standard of professional wine courses is generally too low
• longer wine courses had to ensure that a student also received some practical exposure and experience
• there was too little on offer for existing or aspiring Wine Business Professionals and Managers.

It is our philosophy, and one of the most important foundations of this College, as reflected in its longer courses, (and this distinguishes us from other wine courses) that our wine courses are holistic, that is, it FIRST provides students with a general background into the study of Wine and then that general knowledge is applied to a specific field or speciality, eg Wine Marketing or Wine Production.  

We do not believe that any specialised field or wine region can be studied or understood properly in isolation any more, given the global world that we live in and that the wine commodity finds itself in:

• with certain universal varietals such as chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon being planted almost everywhere on the globe,
• by wine makers who have all studied winemaking and viticulture, and utilise the same techniques, from the same text books, often at the same universities,
• with flying wine makers, using these universal varietals, making the same style of wine, on all continents,
• the pervasive influence of famous wine critics further encouraging this trend towards an almost universal wine or, as we call it: the "vinum universum".

So, in longer courses, where this is relevant of course, you will gain your basic wine knowledge first, which is then followed by a specialist module where the student can select a special field (eg Oenology, Winemaking, Management, Marketing, Sommelier, etc) or wine region (like Spain or the USA).

Why are our courses different?
What sets us apart from other educational institutions offering Wine courses is:

• the flexibility, cost-and time-saving which e-learning gives. You can make the course fit into your program!
• a higher academic standard in our course contents resulting in a better prepared, trained and employable student.
• flexibility and friendliness
• some of our course are designed specifically for the wine trade, management, sommeliers and hospitality trade and those who already have some grounding in the basic principles of wine
• our courses, and our College’s philosophy, are not elitist
• once you have completed your course you will still receive, for a minimum of 12 months, regular academic updates via wine articles on the platform
• via our e-learning courses international students, who often cannot get access to such sophisticated wine and spirits courses, due to geographical reasons, can now also follow wine courses
• we want all our students to obtain as much practical, hands-on experience of and exposure to the wine industry. This is achieved in certain courses by students attending practicums and work shops and any of our students may join us on a tutored:
• Field Trip to a wine region, to get some hands-on, practical exposure to grapes, viticulture, wine making or other related practical experience. These are optional trips.
• Visit to a Wine Fair, like the London Wine Fair, ProWein, the Cape Fair or Vinexpo in Bordeaux
• Visits to local wineries and vineyards

And Exams?
Most of our courses will require students to sit a final exam, and currently we utilise the Proctor system to do so, simply and efficiently.

A proctored exam is one that is overseen by an impartial individual (called a proctor) who monitors or supervises a student while he or she is taking an exam. The proctor ensures the security and integrity of the exam process. Such a proctor is actually selected by you, the student, and is a person who lives in your area who will act as the proctor and it is usually held in the office or home of the proctor.

In the very near future tests and even exams will be conducted via the Platform.