Wataru Iwata
Kyoto Ambassador
ohmochi0422
Wataru Iwata was born in Nagoya, Japan. He moved to New Zealand in 2013 and after spending three years in Auckland and one year in Europe, he moved back to Japan and started to work in the popular wine bar Cave de K in Kyoto.
Iwata was named the Best Sommelier of Japan in 2017, and also won the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale Asia-Oceania Best Sommelier Competition in 2018. He ended up in 11th place in the A.S.I Best Sommelier in the World competition 2019.
Iwata started working as a sommelier at the hotel The Thousand Kyoto in October 2019 and has also been working as wine ambassador for several Japanese companies.