Category: wine training

When I Grow Up…

Ok, first off, yes, I am a major slacker and haven’t been posting here in a long time.  I admit it, and am working on resolving my occassional severe case of Slackeritis.  I however am actively posting on Twitter (www.twitter.com/winesgood) in the meantime, so if my Slacker problems continue here on the WinesGood blog, just give me a little poke and I’ll jump back here with more regularity.

So.. what do I want to be when I grow up?  Don’t know exactly!  What I do know is that I love love love when we’re up in wine country, cruising around, talking to people, tasting great wine, eating local fresh food, enjoying the clean, clear, fresh air.  So either I’m saying I want to be a permanent tourist in wine country (not really a bad idea right?), or I need to make wine country my home and my business. 

But what to do?  I know I don’t really want to be a farmer.  I mean, the cute little vegetable garden that I plant with my son is fun, but acres of grapes, probably less so.  I love the cooking, eating, and drinking aspects of wine country. 

So I think the first step for me is to learn how to make wine….  This leads to a ton of other questions and multiple directions and I need your input and advice here – yes, your input.  Do I go the wine education route, taking courses in wine history, regions, and flavor profiles offered by associations such as WSET?  Or do I hook up with one of these cooperative wine making groups like Crushpad?  Or do I try to casually pursuade a small winemaker to allow me to buy a barrel or part barrel and get down and dirty making wine?

I know an awesome wine maker, who with some cash and my volunteering to help (physical labor, social media, marketing, walking his dog, etc) might be convinced to work with me.  He suggested that while official training is nice, doing something is the best way to learn.  I tend to agree, but…

So?  What do I do?  What makes the most sense?  What can I do while balancing my day job (which is running consumer marketing research for a fitness company)?  Anyone? Bueller? Thoughts?

To be continued…….

Education – Self or Official Certification Programs ?

Ok so now that I have jumped onto the internet blog bandwagon here’s a quick update on some key things.  We know I have passion, practice, and interest.  I’m self taught and have visited too many tasting rooms to list.  But I want more..  Recently I went to a friends birthday gathering, the theme was a wine tasting party conducted by a Sommelier.   While I may not have been the professor sitting in the room, I did know the a majority of the information that she was sharing.  We did a tasting of 9 different wines, in 4 different segments: Chardonnay, Rhone Reds, Bordeaux Reds, and dessert wines.  Each segment offered a tremendous range, showing the guests the diversity of wine. 

I loved it and will go into the differences and walk you through the tasting in another post someday.  The point here was that my passion was on fire.  I spoke with the “instructor” who strongly suggested that I pursue my interest in formal training.  This is where the true confusion began – where does one  go and how to begin?

In doing my standard google searches, I ran across what would later come to be known by me as the “big boys” of wine education – Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET), Society of Wine Educators (SWE), and Court of Masters (COM).  I think I’ve ruled out the Court of Masters programs as they are highly geared to on-premise personnel training (restaurant/hotel/bar workers). While the program looks informative, I don’t think its for me.

This leaves me bouncing between WSET and SWE programs and I can admit that I’m frustrated, confused and excited, and back to frustrated.  Here in Los Angeles there is a well known local wine retailer that offers the WSET Intermediate program that I am interested in to get started.  I think this is the one I’ll take.  On the other hand, the SWE offers training materials and a test for their CSW (Certified Specialist of Wine) which has tremendous appeal for me as well.  Oooh ok, well maybe this one.  I think I’ve ruled out any of the local college/university programs, but maybe not as some of them seem to offer a nice, base level education, maybe to be used as a lead in for the CSW exam.   See, told you, I’m confused.

What to do?  Both of these two programs offer what I want, nice well rounded, recognized, wine education.  One is more of a home study that you do in conjunction with other outside courses, and one is a sit down seminar series.  I do know or think I know that I want a weekly seminar type program, I want tasting involved (partially to learn, and partially to drink), and I want a recognized exam at the end (ideally one that I can pass).  Each of the above looks very cool and I’m interested. 

Anyone know which way to go?  Advise?  Thoughts?  What have you taken??