John Ospina, SWS

  • The SWS now allows me to have an even greater appreciation of all the fabulous wines coming out of Spain, some that I knew little about before.
  • Wine Enthusiast
  • WSET Level 3, Italian Wine Scholar
John Ospina, SWS

Congratulations to John Ospina, SWS, for passing the Spanish Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!

About John:

I began to appreciate wine early on in my youth with my family at meals. My parents were wine enthusiasts and they would allow us to have small tastes on special occasions. As an adult in my late twenties, I had a wine epiphany with a Stag’s Leap Cabernet Sauvignon that put me on a path to becoming a wine lover. I moved to Washington State in my thirties and became a huge fan of many of Washington State’s top producers. When I met my wife, she also enjoyed wine and that led us to developing our passion for wine together. After many years of collecting and enjoying wines from all over the world, I decided to formalize my love of wine. I started volunteering at a top winery in Woodinville WA. I also enrolled in the WSET programs while still working at AT&T

After 20 years at AT&T, I retired in December of 2019 to pursue a career change into the Pacific Northwest wine industry.

I have completed up to the WSET – L3 certification as well the WSG; IWS, SWS and I am currently studying for the FWS exam. I also have a tremendous fascination of Champagne so I will likely pursue the WSG Champagne Master Level in 2021.

The SWS program was particularly a joy because of my love of all wine and food products from the Iberian Peninsula. The SWS now allows me to have even a greater appreciation of all the fabulous wines coming out of Spain, some that I knew little about before. I feel that now having taken and passed SWS, IWS and FWS very soon, will give me a great breadth of knowledge of how the Old World wines began and evolved to where they are today, and the incredible influence they had on the rest of the wine producing regions of the world.

Not only did the SWS program enhance my passion of Spanish wine but I believe the SWS program along with my other wine education gives me the ability to enter the wine industry with the knowledge and confidence to succeed in various areas of the wine industry .i.e. education, sales, brand ambassador, and distribution.

Andrea Mcewan

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