Wine Tasting Courses

Wine tasting courses are a great way to learn about different varietals of wine.

Luckily, we live in a world where information is at our fingertips—usually from the comfort of our own home thanks to the Internet. People can buy things online, plan a vacation and book it online and take courses online. Yes, you can even take some wine courses online, but it’s not really a great distance learning subject. You need to be in a physical setting with other people to get the most out of the course.

Why? Because learning about wine is much more fun when you do it with other people! Most importantly, when you are with other people tasting and learning about wine, some people will taste something in the wine that you may not have and you could have one of those “OH YEAH!” moments. When tasting wines it’s sometimes very hard to pull descriptors from your head to identify aromas from the glass, so it’s helpful having others throwing out suggestions. Doing a wine class online sort of takes that benefit away—sitting in front of a computer tasting wine and sharing the notes online in a forum doesn’t quite have the same effect.

There are so many different types of wine courses you can take it’s mind-boggling. From the advanced Master Sommelier and Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) to the more fun and casual one day or half-day courses—and everything in between. Sometimes even your local wine shop will have little seminars and tastings about specific wines, varietals and regions. These are usually inexpensive and a great way to learn in small increments more and more about wine.

Of course, it matters where you live. In wine country you are going to have many more options from winery-hosted wine tasting courses to college level classes. A good place to start is at your local community college. Lately it seems that wine is a huge boom (especially for the Gen X and Millennial generations) that more and more community colleges are offering introductory or Wine 101 classes if you will. It’s definitely worth checking out in your area.

It seems that everyone is trying to get in on offering wine courses. Wine magazines such as the Wine Spectator offer courses (online/correspondence) as well as some others—it is definitely the trend. If you walk into your favorite bookstore and check out the wine section (and yes, there is one) you will see a plethora of books from which to choose. Pick up a few and read through them a bit—find one that seems to talk to you and worded in a way that you “get” and enjoy reading. There are so many books to choose from that you can find many, many options (Wine for Dummies was the first one and still a good read).

Use books as a tool for your quest for wine knowledge—enrolling in a wine course is a fun, social and more complete way to get involved in understanding and learning more about wine.

So you've decided to join a class and take a course in wine. Good! Now, besides just showing up to class, participating, sniffing-sipping-spitting, take another step and get to know the people around you. You may find some like-minded people who love wine as much as you and don’t want the learning to stop just because the class did. Great! Exchange phone numbers and start a wine tasting group! You can get together with these folks and bring wine, taste new stuff, and even do a theme night with Pinot Noir under $30 or great Cabernet over $40—and everything in between (different countries, varietals, price points, etc.) It’s a good way to continue learning about wine—and not having to pay for every bottle! When everyone brings one to share, that is a win-win for everyone!

Whichever way you choose to take your wine course, enjoy every minute! Wine is fun, fascinating, and no matter how much you think you know there is always more to learn. It will be the most fun course you’ll enroll in! Cheers.

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