The Wine Sage is a passion that I’ve pursued since the 80’s when my first employer introduced me to fine wine.
Studying wine has been a interest from many perspectives, including enjoyment of fine food and, perhaps surprisingly, spiritually. The latter might surprise, but as a faith-based person, consider that Jesus Christ’s first miracle was to turn water into fine wine. Paul Johnson of “Jesus a Biography” calculated that Jesus made about 1,000 bottles of water into fine wine, commented on by a high-official that they ‘saved the best wine’ to serve. This meant that God knew the difference between new wine and a great wine and skipped the time-consuming process of making a fine wine by miraculously creating one instantly. I like the quote often reported to be by Thomas Jefferson, “wine is God’s way of having a good time”.
Between 2013-2016 I took formal classes at the American Wine School to formalize my wine understanding, earning the Wine Studies Education Trust (WSET) level one, two and three credentials. There are three tracks for wine education
- Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS)
- Society of Wine Educators (SWE).
- Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) — the one I studied.
I chose the latter WSET program, a London-based educational program. Its programs are run in over 60 countries and reach over 30,000 students each year. The programs are very respected and the WSET diploma is widely considered the gold standard in broad-based wine education. To learn more, go to www.winescholarguild.org.
Since then, I’ve also represented an importer to sell various Italian and French wines, which further broadened my wine understanding, as well as public education and sales experiences.
As a former college professor, I teach what I know. Not having a regular outlet to teach what I know about wine has lead to blogging my knowledge. I hope you enjoy it!
Wine Sage Review 