Click on an image to access the galleries of some of my vineyards and wineries visits per country :
(I’m currently in the process of uploading the past 10 years, bear with me ;)
Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz
Senior Technology Executive with global experience as CEO, Investor, Board Member, Entrepreneur, Consultant. Wine lover.
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Primeurs 2018 (April) - Château Rauzan-Segla
WSET Diploma - 2019
Italian Wine Ambassador - 2022
How it all started
My immersion into the wine world started over 25 years ago, tasting extensively and visiting wine regions around the world (France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, USA, Chile, Germany, Austria, Greece, South Africa, Israel…); I enjoy the many parallels with my world of technology: passion, enthusiasm, global reach, innovation, etc. and enjoy the stimulation from all the history, geography, geology, chemistry, physics, marketing, salesmanship involved! Such a joy also to go visit a winery set in beautiful rolling hills
The French wine journalist Alain Marty invited me as a guest to his wine show 'InVino BFM’ back in the summer 2015 (episode 556) where I discussed my career and my wine interests, with Philippe Faure-Brac (Best Sommelier in the World ASI 1992) talking about my birth year 1971. I recalled how I started wine classes for many years with my first teacher, Corinne Lefort, in my mid-20s. She gave me the wine bug. Much later, as a side-effect of celebrating my 40th birthday in Burgundy, I was honored to become a Chevalier de la Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin in 2012 at the Clos-Vougeot. I was a member of a fine wine think tank (Areni Global) which assembled in Champagne in 2018, in Bordeaux in 2019, online in 2020 (COVID times…), in South Africa in 2022; unfortunately, I couldn’t join in Napa Valley (California) in 2023. “The World of Fine Wine” magazine has a picture of me at a 2019 Areni tasting with Dr. Laura Catena (issue 65, page 32 - PDF).
WSET Education
Over dinner at a tech event in January 2015, I met Michele Anderson MW, who persuaded me that I needed proper wine education and should stop being a wine tourist (sic), and suggested I enroll in the WSET courses: it spearheaded my 3 years journey studying for the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wine and Spirits (DipWSET) in 2016-2019: I graduated with Merit from the WSET School in London in 2019, with extra help in Theory with online courses from Napa Valley Wine Academy (I took extra Italian courses - graduated with Honours - because it was the hardest country to master in my view. I passed Diploma Unit 3 Theory with a Distinction in a question on Tuscany DOCs and DOCGs :), and Rachel von Sturmer DipWSET prep courses.
Extra tools for studying: Coralie Strong DipWSET had put together a nice site! TippleTips was also recommended but I had no time to review it. I also recommend the preparation notes from Marion Barral DipWSET. For Tasting, I practiced regularly with a group under Nicolas Fouilleroux DipWSET in Paris and did 2 days in London with Jim Gore DipWSET ’s Global Wine Academy. I highly recommend all of these. Daniela Frison DipWSET and Pauline Vicard DipWSET also shared with me their study notes :p Thank you all. Previously, I had graduated with Distinction from WSET Level 3 (2016), and with Distinction from WSET Level 2 (2016). For these 2 levels, I studied in Paris at Académie du Vin, with some funny blind-tasting sessions with Christophe Macra MW. A Coravin was a great help for tasting many bottles regularly. Funnily enough, back in 2015, because the organizer Gaël Duval knew I was into wine, he had me interview Greg Lambrecht, founder of Coravin on stage at La French Touch conference in New York City. I also practiced a bit with Le Nez du Vin (54 aromas Edition).
Amusingly, the 3rd French MW, Christophe Macra MW, and I used to work together in consulting in the late 90s in Paris.
There are many great resources online, that I used to subscribe to, in addition to a large wine book library at home and a wine cellar: SommTV, WineMasters TV, Jancis Robinson Purple Pages, Guildsomm, TheWineShow and many podcasts such as I’ll Drink to That, InVinoradio.fm. Youtube is a fantastic resource for videos on all wine regions, wine producers, etc. I recommend wine maps (which were all over my walls at home :) from Wine Folly and De Long. Occasional regional maps (including in 3D) are also beautiful (example: Oregon, Burgundy). Check also practice maps from AmbleWine. During the COVID-19 crisis, my London club, where I was a foreign member, 67 Pall Mall, held live daily webinars on all topics related to wine with world experts, which became 67pallmall.tv.
Other online wine courses
I also enrolled in the Wine Scholar Guild classes for Spain, France, Italy Unit 1 & Unit 2 Intensive and Master-Level for Loire with Pascaline Lepeltier MS (I highly recommend going for the instructor-led versions); and expected to finally sit the exams for these in 2022, but it was on a low priority, and never did, although I attended all classes. I had looked at enrolling in the other Master-level courses for extra-knowledge, and also taking the Napa Valley Expert and American Wine Expert online courses after that. During COVID, I joined the online Winemaking certificate Program at UC Davis (module 1 is waived with WSET Diploma, and although I waived the requirement with my previous science studies, I successfully passed Basic Chemistry for winemakers (textbook)), and successfully passed the Wine Production and Viticulture modules. I have yet to sign up for the 2 remaining modules (Wine Stability and Sensory Analysis, Quality Control and Analysis in Winemaking) one day.
Vinitaly International Academy
I became an Italian Wine Ambassador in Verona in April 2022 with Vinitaly (with best paper award, and best video project award). Robert Joseph sat in the back of the room and wrote a paper on our exams in Meininger’s Wine Business International, mentioning me “The South American venture capitalist, who made it first time looked happier than if he’d just signed a multi-million dollar deal.”, probably referring to my little victory dance :)
I needed to pass this exam to justify that I very often order Italian wines at restaurants in France, where any foreign bottle is frowned upon.
Motives
I’m often asked if I’m studying to become
a) a sommelier (no ! That is a separate career that I highly respect but that includes floor service, food & wine pairing, mainly through the Court of Master Sommeliers. This career is super well described in the 3 Somm movies and Uncorked TV show); I attended the ASI World Best Sommelier competition in Antwerp in 2019 and in Paris in 2023: I could never do what they do!
b) an oenologist (no, but I wish I had known about this 20 years ago. It can be studied in France at Bordeaux, Dijon, Montpellier; Adelaide; UC Davis for example).
I’m just studying wine theory, and expanding my palate skills and learning more about the business of wine as a hobby.
In my day job as an investor, I received over 100 applications from wine-related technology startups and have reviewed most of the French Wine Tech ~100 wine startup members and keep bumping into new initiatives at tech events. I have also been speaking at wine conferences about the potential of more technology in the wine world : MUST (3rd Edition) in Cascais, Portugal in June 2019 on Wine & technology (press release, interview). The largest national newspaper in Chile even mentioned me as one of 2 Chileans attending the “Davos of Wine” !; and at Wine2wine in Verona, Italy on Blockchain, AI and Wine in November 2019 (press release, recording). I was one of the judges in June 2020 for 5StarsWine in Verona Italy (moved online), helping select the best wines of Italy in 2020 for Vinitaly, and was asked to return to Verona as a judge again in June 2021 but couldn’t make it last minute because of COVID. I was back as a judge in April 2022. I’m sometimes recording podcasts again, discussing many topics, including “how has climate change impacted wine making?”.
Next steps?
I loved attending the 9th International MW Symposium in Logroño, Spain, where I met many MWs. I went back to the 10th edition in Mainz in 2023, and look forward to the next one in Australia in 2026.
I applied to the Institute of Masters of Wine twice in 2020 and 2022. Although I qualify for 4 of the 5 criteria (WSET Diploma, entrance exams - I’m told I did well in the last one, motivation essays, reference letters from current MWs), I don’t have the required 3 years in the world of wine. “No exceptions can be made for active professional involvement in the wine industry.”
So why all these studies ? In addition to the intellectual challenge, the beauty of wine regions and the passion & energy of winemakers, I am considering investing more in wine-related technology startups, and also probably in one or more wine estates in the regions I love most. I also expect to start teaching more wine courses to other students (I tried to enroll as a WSET Educator), as I have enjoyed the several wine masterclasses I’ve given at different technology conferences such as Stream and Kinnernet. As I said above, the business of wine…
Just as an example, in the first half of 2024, I attended RAW wine and Vinexpo in Paris (FR), Opera Wine and Vinitaly in Verona (IT), VDP.Wein Börse in Mainz (DE), Vie Vinum in VIenna (AT)… And placed an order for ~400 bottles of German wine from great producers Raumland, Dönnhoff, Emrich-Schönleber, Rudolf Fürst… So much to discover in Germany, such as the wines of Clemens Busch, Zilliken and Schloss Vollrads! In Austria, I loved tasting Nikolaihof, rieslings and Grüner Veltliners from Alzinger, Emmerich Knoll and Bründlmayer; and of course the Ruster Ausbruch from Heidi Bröck (Anthology!). Don’t even get me started on Italy, with marvels from Emidio Pepe, Mastroberardino, Benanti or in Slovenia with Marjan Simcic, Scurek and Movia!
