REthink Wine Blog

I recently enrolled in a WSET class to try and expand my wine knowledge, and I am quickly finding out that I am not the wine novice that I once thought I was! As we breezed through the regions of Burgundy, Rhone, the Loire and Bordeaux last week I began to feel like I needed a lot more time to really start to take all of this in. Feeling overwhelmed already, I realize that we haven’t even started covering any regions outside of France! The class will cover everything from winemaking processes, soil types, weather patterns, and regional history all in the course of 6 weeks. The exam even includes a blind tasting as part of the certification process.

One thing I am finding is that you can never educate yourself enough. As much as you may think you know about wine, there is a lot out there and it is an ever evolving and expanding industry. I think that anyone who works at a winery or restaurant or consistently interacts with wineries should take the time to sign up for a class. Not only is this a great way to help educate yourself and gain credentials, but it is also a great way to meet other people who work in the industry, especially up and coming sommeliers! Not such a bad place to pitch your winery brand.

The most internationally recognized programs include Wine Spirits and Education Trust, The Court of Master Sommeliers, International Sommelier Guild, American Sommelier Association, also Society of Wine Educators, and Institute of Masters of Wine. I suggest you look into programs in your area and think about signing up for classes soon!

This entry was posted by Rachel Fox Reed on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Resources and Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.