With the signing of this new collaboration agreement between the training center in Valladolid and the cooperative winery in La Seca, students in the areas of Gastronomy, Hospitality, and Marketing will have the opportunity to take part in various activities designed to highlight the versatility of the Verdejo grape variety and the specific importance of wine-sector cooperativism within the agri-food industry of Castilla y León.
La Seca, November 25, 2025. – The Alcazarén Professional School and Bodega Cuatro Rayas have renewed the collaboration agreement established in 2023 between both entities to ensure that students enrolled in programs related to marketing, hospitality, and gastronomy at the renowned training center in Valladolid can gain first-hand insight into the potential and winemaking versatility that characterizes the Verdejo variety, native to the Rueda Designation of Origin and used by the Cuatro Rayas cooperative to produce many of its most renowned wines.
Lorenzo Alonso Nistal, CEO of Grupo Aspasia—the parent company of the Alcazarén Professional School—and Vicente Orihuela Villameriel, Managing Director of Cuatro Rayas, have endorsed this agreement with their signatures which, through activities such as designing a food-and-wine pairing menu, participating in an educational tasting at the academic center’s training restaurant, and launching a label-design competition that will allow students to propose ideas for the development of the image of a Verdejo varietal from the cooperative winery, also aims to ensure that future hospitality professionals and other related profiles in the sector gain first-hand understanding of the relevance of a cooperative organization within the wine industry, to provide them with a global perspective of the region’s wine sector and to raise awareness of the significant role that winemaking and grape growing play in the rural areas of Castile and León, where they represent a fundamental source of income and the main livelihood for a substantial portion of the population.
