Ian Symonds  

Areas of speciality:

WSET Intermediate

WSET Advanced

Lectures

Tastings

 

Ian is the Cornish son of a Cornish father who took his family and journalistic career from Cornwall to Kent in the early sixties.  A next-door neighbour studying for WSTA and then WSET exams gave Ian his first taste of wine as a teenager.  A few molecules of something must have carried forward until the mid-90’s when in Hong Kong some WSET courses captured his attention and then imagination and passion.  The rest, as they say, is history!

A teacher by training who slipped out of the UK system after thirteen years; started in 1987 to follow a sixteen year period in commercial training, management and IT.  In the middle of this period a re-location to Hong Kong began to change everything.  Retirement in 2003 enabled the change to continue with a summer of revision for the final papers of the WSET Diploma.  By then local wine schools had already been using Ian’s spare time to teach, which was, for him, a great way to learn.

Ian has since taught for a number of the wine schools in Hong Kong at a variety of levels.  Professional development is vital and to that end he has been able to attend courses at the Australian Wine Research Institute, the L'École du Vin in Bordeaux, join several WSET tutor tours and attend many excellent seminars and tastings in Hong Kong.  Currently lecturing at the Hong Kong Open University and Hong Kong University schools of continuing education offers excellent opportunities to teach WSET and Bordeaux courses as well as design courses at higher levels for the universities

WSET Diploma, WSET Recommended Tutor, AWRI Advance Wine Assessment Course, Bordeaux L'École du Vin - International Wine Educator.

Tasting techniques and wine faults, Australia, Chile, Rhône, New Zealand.

Flat 25B, Block 20, Park Island, Ma Wan, NT, Hong Kong

+ 852 - 2816 - 1972

+ 852 - 2818 - 8960

+ 852 - 6292 - 7839

symonds@netvigator.com