Congratulations to Mona Elyafi for passing the Champagne Master Level exam with highest honors!
About Mona:
I am the founder & CEO of ILDK Media, an entertainment Public Relations agency expert in the realm of LGBTQ+ focused PR campaigns, Global Women Empowerment strategies & Special Events.
As a French-Lebanese female entrepreneur, I am proud to have successfully kept the agency at the forefront of change pioneering PR campaigns that have been (and still are) enormously instrumental in making LGBTQ+ agendas move into mainstream culture, making front-page news (Forbes, LA Times, NBC.com, NY Times, Cosmopolitan, to name a few).
When Covid happened I, like many others, had to put my business on hiatus.
With plenty of time on my hands, I took that opportunity to focus on my passion: Champagne. Eager to learn more I researched online the Champagne Studies available.
I knew nothing about the wine world much less about wine studies and the different certifications. But it ultimately led me to enroll in the Wine Scholar Guild Champagne Master-Level Program. I successfully completed the program in a little less than a year and a half.
My goal now is to put my communications and PR skills to work to share my expertise and communicate my passion for Champagne (the region) & champagne (the wine). Most people know very little about champagne, and often, nothing at all about the diversity of champagne.
As a Champagne writer/journalist at fromthevinetowine.com I want to educate people about champagne, its history and the incredible, (some quite iconic) stories encapsulated in every single bottle of champagne.
The first curriculum I completed was the MOOC program offered by the Comité Champagne. It absolutely was a great learning platform, but I wanted something a bit more challenging on an academic level. The WSG Champagne Master-Level is a program unlike any others. They have created the most exhaustive and extensive curriculum ever – one that fosters in-depth knowledge and expert understanding of Champagne. A laborious but elaborate study that formally builds expert status and credibility.
For all the challenges of the pandemic, being afforded the time and opportunity to study the Champagne Master Level Program has been my silver lining. I was able to turn my passion into a valuable and prestigious education, and new professional vocation.
I plan on doing WSET Level 2 this year to further my wine education and knowledge. My bucket list dream is to open a Champagne Bar.
The Master Level program has been instrumental in giving me the credibility and legitimacy to be seen as an authority on Champagne. It will give me the opportunity to hold champagne tastings and educational events. It’s already allowed me to write and do industry interviews with some of the shakers and makers in Champagne and in the sparkling world.
