Bordeaux Mentor Week 2024, applications now open

We are thrilled to announce that the third edition of the Bordeaux Mentor Week is now open for applications.

Bordeaux Mentor Week will be held from 23rd – 27th September 2024.

For the third year in a row, the search is on for 7 lucky wine scholars from around the world to join Jane and Chinedu for an intensive and immersive week in Bordeaux. The impact of this week will inspire and motivate the seven mentees by giving them an incredibly hands-on experience focused on the wines of Bordeaux, from harvest to blending to production to tasting to marketing to navigating distribution channels, guided by two leading Bordeaux experts and a select group of industry partners.

Bordeaux Mentor Week is designed to provide access to the wines and the people of Bordeaux for those young individuals who are starting out in the wine trade. In addition to working in the vineyards and cellars of Bordeaux, the scholars will meet with start-ups and wine innovators, explore La Place de Bordeaux, and learn to develop their tasting skills with a focus on older wines from Bordeaux’s top producers.

Anyone who wants to pursue a career in the wine industry and who doesn’t have access to adequate educational support or financial means is encouraged to apply.

One of the new elements this year is that one of the seven spots will be specifically reserved for an aspiring novice journalist or wine critic. According to Bordeaux Mentor Week co-founder Jane Anson, “Wine criticism, particularly around the wines of Bordeaux, remains a pretty closed field of the same names. I’d love to help introduce some new energy into wine criticism.”

According to co-founder Chinedu Rita Rosa, “Our goal is to increase inclusion, diversity, and equity in the wine industry. Bordeaux Mentor Week represents a galvanizing action to bring together aspiring wine scholars from disadvantaged backgrounds who are faced with barriers, financial restraints, and a lack of mentors.”

The seven scholars will be provided with spectacular accommodations by Château du Tertre in Margaux. All accommodations and transport within the region (on the official programme) will be covered for attendees. Travel bursaries will be offered to each scholar to fund travel to the region.

The historic sponsors of Bordeaux Mentor Week are The Gérard Basset Foundation and The IWSC – Club Oenologique. For 2024, Wine Scholar Guild has agreed to enroll each of the seven scholars in their updated Bordeaux Masters certification program. The members of the Duquesne Club in Pittsburgh have also made a generous donation

Who can apply?

• The week is aimed at young sommeliers, retailers, wine students, wine writers, or anyone starting out in the wine trade who would like to get behind the scenes of a region that is key to the global wine market. The intention is to open up knowledge and access of Bordeaux wines, winemaking, methods of distribution and the potential of the sector.
• The week will be offered to seven participants. All accommodations and transport within the region (on the official programme) will be covered for attendees. There will be several travel bursaries available for those who are not able to fund travel to the region, thanks to sponsors Gerard Basset Foundation and the IWSC Foundation.
• A few comments from past scholars…
• ‘This was a really amazing opportunity… organised by self-made women in wine, this was something I appreciated, to gain from their experience…. they really made an excellent programme for us… they got a lot of very different people, with experiences from all over the world’. Isabelle (hospitality student)
• ‘A wonderful experience, it is definitely going to change the way we look forward to getting in to the industry’ Tanmay (hospitality)
• ‘This trip is a lifetime experience… and I am hoping that anyone that has the opportunity to apply for the Bordeaux Mentor Week should be open minded and take the opportunity because this will change your life. I am not the same person who left Lagos Nigeria a week ago’. Tracey (wine sales)
• ‘I have been so grateful to have the opportunity to taste a lot of wines, visit a lot of vineyards, looking at different aspects such as the blending sessions… when you get that experience within the vineyards and talking with the winemakers, you get more insight, I’m going to take all that knowledge to be a better salesman’. Fernando (wine sales)
• ‘This trip is a lifetime experience… and I am hoping that anyone that has the opportunity to apply for the Bordeaux Mentor Week should be open minded and take the opportunity because this will change your life. I am not the same person who left Lagos Nigeria a week ago’. Tracey (wine sales)
• The  program has opened my eyes to a world of possibilities, and I’m committed to applying everything I’ve learned and passing it on to both my generation and the next”  (Loran Kipkosgei)
• Participation in the mentor week was a true once in a lifetime opportunity. Jane and Chinedu, experts in their own rights, introduced us to so many talented professionals leading the way in Bordeaux. They gave us an insider’s look at the region, visiting producers but also engaging with all aspects of the industry. Forging friendships with the other scholars has also been a highlight… Bordeaux Mentor Week has inspired and enriched beyond what I could have dreamed (Eric Palmer).

How to apply:

• Simply email mentorweek@janeanson.com and we will send you an application form to fill in, asking questions about your experience and motivation, or see the full questions here. Twenty finalists will then be asked for an online interview.

What happens next?
Applications will be open from March 7, 2024 through to March 31, with scholars announced in April 2024.

And for a little extra motivation…
Please have a read through (with videos) the roundup of the first edition and the second edition