DAWA judge profile: Hayato Kojima

Hayato Kojima CWE, a certified wine educator and specialist from Japan, is a judge in the Decanter Asia Wine Awards 2018.

Hayato Kojima

Hayato Kojima CWE is the president of wine education company Wine and Newlife, which he set up in 1997. He is a Wine Educator (the first CWE in Asia), a wine book author and a wine competition judge. Starting his wine career at Japan Airlines, Hayato was a wine educator for cabin attendants, and a committee member of in-flight wine selection.

He trained 700 certified sommeliers over a period of 10 years with the airline. Hayato is also an author, winning a Gourmand Cookbook Award in 2003 and 2015 with his wine text book “Test your knowledge of wine”, now published in Japanese and Korean. He judges in 3 major wine competitions in Japan.

Hayato is an official Sherry educator, a certified Sake taster and a beer judge. He was the former Director Emeritus and Japan Chapter President of the Society of Wine Educators (USA). He also helped the foundation of the Asian Chapters in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. He has been a Chevalier du Tastevin de Bourgogne since 2000.

In 2017, he founded Koshu Expert Committee (KEC) with Ch’ng Poh Tiong, a Vice Chair of DAWA, to educate non-Japanese wine experts on Koshu. He already has 45 expert candidates from 6 nations and the will open their first Expert Exam in Hong Kong this September. Hayato Kojima has been a Decanter Asia Wine Awards judge since 2012.