The Regional Sommelier Institute will open its doors in September 2022
It was with undisguised joy that Jean-Michel Solé attended the presentation of the Institut Régional de Sommellerie Sud de France to the territory’s professionals on Monday, March 28, 2022. Indeed, this project was included in the Banyulen territory project in 2014. With the conviction that drives him when it comes to defending the interests of the territory, he was able to demonstrate that a Sommelier Institute was the essential element to bring notoriety to the appellations of the Cru but also to those of the Department and the Region. Since 2016, the project of the Sommelier Institute is included in the economic development project of the Community of Municipalities Albères Côte Vermeille Illibéris.
This multi-site center of excellence, led by the joint union “Institut Régional de Sommellerie Sud de France (IRS)”, is located both in Mas Reig (Banyuls-sur-Mer) and in the Byrrh cellars (Thuir). It will offer a range of training courses and master classes (lectures given by renowned professionals). 2.6 million euros have been invested in the Mas Reig site with the aim of preserving our wine heritage and the winegrowers who make it live and who must live off it. This institute has the ambition to train ambassadors of our appellations on the world market. As Antoine Parra, President of the CCACVI, said at the presentation of the Banyulenc campus, “we have the quality, we just need to be known”.
