Woman & Home Magazine - September 2007

TIME POOR? TRY A MINI COURSE - WINE TASTING

"Learning abot wine has given me so much more confidence"

Erica Weindorf, 39, wanted to know more about her favourite wines, so she signed up for a wine tasting course in her area. She lives in London.

“I've always enjoyed drinking wine with my friends, but sometimes felt silly looking at wine lists and not understanding what I was choosing. The course was so enjoyable and the tutors took us through different types of wine, from Bordeaux to Merlot, and what to look for in a good wine. Now when I'm out with friends, they pass me the wine list and I choose the drinks.”

Erica's one-day course was with The Wine Education Service and cost £110. For details, call (020) 8991 8212 or visit www.wine-education-service.co.uk.

The Times - Careers Supplement - January 19, 2006

OUT OF OFFICE ASSISTANT - WINE

Consider the scenario. You’re at a restaurant, the wine list is thrust into your hand, your client, who is French, politely suggests that you choose, and you don’t know how to pronounce a single one of the listed vineyards, let alone hold forth about what they’re like. Sound familiar?

More professionals are now interested in wine as a result of a wider awareness in the media, better educated sales staff and films such as Sideways, but “wine choice angst” persists. So why not take a course?

"Our clients generally want more confidence in dealing with their own clients when they’re entertaining,” says Sandy Leckie, a director of the Wine Education Service, a London-based wine course which ministers to some 2,000 students a year, many of them corporates. “There’s still huge angst — mostly because of the relative obscurity of European wine labels, in particular French ones, which still inspire a lot of awe.”

For £195 in London (£185 elsewhere), you get an eight-week introductory course covering all the major wine-producing regions, as well as techniques for tasting, cellaring and storing. Subsequent courses allow you to cover a preferred region in more depth, and there are also one-day courses for the time-pressed (£110), as well as one-off tastings (from £30, depending on the wine).

For further costs, locations and dates visit: www.wine-education-service.co.uk

JONATHAN RICHARDS


Sunday Times - Simply Wine Supplement Part 1 - September 07, 2003

THE NOVICE

When wine's on the curriculum, Tim Clifford can't wait to get back to school

A rich golden fluid swirls around 14 glasses as tutor Quentin Sadler invites students on the Wine Education Service’s beginners course to release the aromas of an Urziger Würzgarten Riesling Spätlese 1993. Quentin has helpfully written this long name on the board of our room at the LSE. Even better, he’s explained what it means. What he hasn’t done is prepare us for the wine’s smell.

To me, it reeks of petrol, although I’m sure everyone else will suggest “ripe persimmons”. When several people say petrol — one man even likens it to outboard engine diesel — I feel relieved. Quizzed by Quentin, we all agree there’s a hint of apple and lime, too.

Then we take a sip. The correct way to do this is to suck in air with the wine to release its flavours. Think Hannibal Lecter, liver, fava beans and a nice Chianti and you have the action. The riesling tastes honeyed, though Quentin suggests it also has a mineral quality. “Have any of you ever licked slate?” he asks. Some unusual homework beckons.

If, like me, your thirst for knowledge and thirst are aligned, structured courses are the logical place to start. Comprehensive ones are run by the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (www.wset.co.uk; 020 7236 3551), which can take you from amateur enthusiast to wine professional. The courses of the Wine Education Service (www.wine- education-service.co.uk; 020 8992 8212) are more sociable, perhaps because the wines are swallowed rather than spat out.

The WES runs courses in Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester and London. Over 8 weeks, students on the £185 course taste 48 wines. Along the way, they grow more confident talking about taste and smell, senses I soon realised I had taken for granted for far too long.