Sip & Study: Back to School Tips for Wine Lovers Ep 36

Join sommelier Erin as she shares practical tips for enrolling in wine courses and tastings. Erin discusses tips for choosing the right course, the importance of learning from different teachers, setting realistic expectations, and the lifelong journey of wine education. Get ready to deepen your wine knowledge while having fun and meeting new people. Be sure to follow for more wine tips, and stay tuned for next week's episode on apple-inspired pairings.

00:00 Intro
03:34 Tip #1 - Read the Class Description Well
05:10 Tip #2 Learn from Different Teachers
06:11 Tip #3 - Be Brave - Break Out of Your Comfort Zone
07:57 Tip #4 - Try Different Wine Schools
10:40 Tip #5 - Wine is a Lifetime Learning Journey
12:43 Tip #6 - Practice and Homework
14:49 Tip #7 - Have Fun

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Transcript

Erin: 0:00

Well, we've officially made it. Since September and today I want to share tips with you about something that's close to my heart and that's enrolling in wine courses and tasting. Whether you are just starting out on your wine learner's journey or you've been exploring wine for years, taking an official wine course or booking into a tasting can be a fantastic way to deepen your understanding. And of course have a lot of fun and meet new people along the way. So if you've been thinking about enrolling into a wine course or booking into a tasting and diving into the world of wine education seems a bit overwhelming. Not to worry. I have tips to share with you today. Let's get started and dive right into today's episode. Hi everyone. And welcome to the wine shop talk. I'm your host, smelly Erin Rosar. And I'm so happy that you're here with me today. If we haven't met before, it's a lovely to have you here. And if we have welcome back now, for those of you who are new, you should know that I've been a professional smelly for over 20 years now. And it just, my passion, my privilege to make learning about wine, not only fun and easy, but also practical. I want to make sure that you leave every episode with some real life. Practical tips that will help you find wines that you're going to love and enjoy and be able to share with family and friends. I want you to think of me as your very own practical Somali. And in this week's episode, I have practical tips for you specifically finding a wine course or tasting that you're going to love and be able to grow your wine knowledge in. And this is that time of year where I'll get asked by lots of people about, should they take a course? What are their next steps? What should they be looking for in a course so it that'd be great for me to put it all together in an episode and share my tips with you. Now, before we dive into my tips, I do want to share that I want you to think about learning. At whine a bit like golf. It's a bit of a personal best sport. If you will. No one else is tasting the wine the way you are. You're going to learn the same skills you're going to study from the same books you, but at the end of the day, wine tasting and evaluation is really about you and the glass of wine or spirit or beer in front of you. So know that if you have friends or colleagues that are also studying wine, and you feel that you're at a different level that they are that's okay. You're learning at your speed. Everybody has a bit of an area of expertise in my experience where you feel comfortable with a certain area. Maybe you're really comfortable with wines of France. But when it's a Portugal, just can't seem to make a connection with some of those grapes, but don't worry. This is a lifelong journey learning about wine. So give yourself some grace, give yourself some time and just. Dive in, if you will savor the moment of learning about this topic, it is a lifelong journey, It's not just a sprint. This is definitely a marathon. And it's going to layer on top of each other. Everything that you learn when you're studying wine goes into a big bucket and it all swirls around, but it builds on top of each other. So this is one of those topics that you will definitely have what I call the snap back at times where you think you're going to. Feel really comfortable and confident about a topic. And the more you learn, the more you're going to start to understand that there is so much more to learn, so it can feel overwhelming. So just keep going, take a day at a time and remember that you were studying something with over 6,000 years of history. And give yourself the grace to embrace that experience. So now that I've been on that little soap box, let me jump off and let's start with My first tip for you make sure that you really read the class description, the class or tasting event description. A lot of times people will look at sort of the title and do a quick read of what that course is all about and what it entails. And it might sound obvious, but it's really important that you really read and understand what the course. Is all about that you are taking as well as the time commitment of what is expected. So give yourself a few minutes to really take the time and see if there are any prerequisite recommendations. Just the course. Once you do have a pre-core. So if you're studying, for example, with the wines and spirits, education, trust, some of their courses will have prerequisites others. Don't. Knowing about the details of the course that you are taking is going to ensure that not only are you fully prepared when you get there to your class, but you're also going to get the most out of it. In my opinion, there's nothing worse than feeling like the course that you have enrolled in just isn't right for you at that moment in time, whether it is more study focused and the tasting component is not as heavy as you had thought, maybe there's teacher recommendation. So you can also read about who your teacher's going to be. But I do see students at times, enroll in courses, they see the title, sometimes wine courses fill up really fast and so they jump. On it and enroll into it. And then at the end of the day, when the class starts, they realize that potentially they have booked themselves into something that just, maybe isn't a good fit at the time, but give yourself a chance as well to grow into it. And that leads into my tip. Number two, Which is learning from new teachers is a great way to expand your knowledge. So jump around from different teachers. If possible, a lot of times students will stay with the teacher, as the teacher picks up new courses and they are developing a course. And that's fantastic. And you will have, let's call it your wine group that you are studying with that probably you see when you're out, if you're going to public tastings and you'll have a few sort of designated teachers for these courses, and that's fantastic. To have your crew, but at the same time, by having fresh eyes and new experiences, added into the teaching component by new teachers. It's going to expand your knowledge and I might push you a little bit as well. Just know that every instructor brings their own unique perspective to the table when you're studying wine. And the more opportunities you have to learn or listen to different speakers and teachers, That's only going to benefit you and your why knowledge journey. Tip. Number three is all about being brave. And while I mentioned earlier about making sure that you fully read the course description and you knew ahead of time what the course was about. If there was a prerequisite, if you felt that it was a good fit for you. I also want to caveat by saying don't be afraid to jump in and book a course that covers a bigger topic than you have in the past. why does one of those topics in my experience where it's a lot to learn at the very beginning and you're getting comfortable with maps and the topic and some of the science and the noble grape varieties, and you kind of start to get the basics. And then it goes to a place in the middle where you're kind of breaking down the information by region. So you're going to break down Fordow for example, in burgundy. At a similar level. But then the next course is going to be a big jump and you're going to dive in even deeper. And so you may feel like that's a big jump that you're not ready for, but you do have to be brave studying wine. It is a very vast topic with big encyclopedia books. The tasting of the wine is one component. The study learning is another. And so don't be afraid to dive. Into a complex subject, and it's a way to challenge yourself and deepen your knowledge. And those are the times that you're really going to notice this expanse, this big step forward in your wine learning journey. And remember, you're not alone. You're going to be studying with other people in the class. You have a study group of highly recommend. You find a group of let's call them wine Marines. You're going to go through this together. Find your core friend group in your study group, and it's really going to make a difference, but don't. Forget to go outside of your comfort zone, you're going to have to break out of it to continue learning. Tip number four is about jumping between different wine schools. And I highly recommend this. So if you have been on a study path, for example, with the wines and spirit education trust, then maybe you want to take a few courses with the wines of France or the court of masters. So you can jump around between different wine education, guilds, or organizations. The maps are all going to still be the same. The study basis is going to be the same, but jumping around different wide gilts. And it's not just about paper collecting or pin collecting because with every course you'll finish, you'll get a new pin and a new certificate. And that's amazing. But again, you're just going to get fresh eyes and a new opinion, potentially a little different approach. On the topic. And sometimes that just little bit of a shift can make a really big difference for you and how it resonates with you and how you remember it. And so I highly recommend just don't stay on a linear path, but jump around. It's also really fun to give yourself a good reason to travel. So for example, when I did an exam with the court of masters, I went to Aspen to take the exam because why not? Because I wasn't going to go to Aspen normally. So they had an exam. Exam there. And give me a great excuse to give myself a treat if you will, for writing an exam. And then I got a few days to just wander about and visit and really beautiful area. So know that if you are taking exams for some of the courses that look around the world and see where they're offering, and maybe you can also give yourself a great excuse to visit a new destination. I can also highly recommend UC Davis in California has some great weekend workshops. So, if you want to go down, it's a beautiful campus. Take. Just give yourself an opportunity to be a student for the weekend, but look into different universities and wine schools and see if there's a weekend workshop that you can partake in. So there's a lots of different ways, but don't feel that if you have enrolled, let's say in the level three of the minds and spirit education trust that you can't take other courses as well. You definitely can't know. Obviously don't overload yourself, but do one, maybe jump over to somebody else, but definitely jump around. It's really going to open up, but I would highly recommend. Recommend giving yourself a bit of a treat, if you can, and traveled to take an exam and our go take a weekend workshop somewhere. It's really going to reinvigorate you in the study season of your wine journey, because there are times like any times that you are studying A large topic that you are going to feel overwhelmed, that it's just going to feel like a lot of words. On the page and the fund is going to go out of it and to stay the course and to find a new way to excite yourself again about the topic. Tip number five is a bit of a segue of what I just spoke about. And this is remember that this is a lifelong journey. I've said it a few times in the podcast, but I just can't say it enough in that this is not a topic that you are going to learn, and it's going to have an end date. We are continually adding wine regions. We're learning more about grape varieties, about wine, making techniques, sciences becoming involved. We're also going. Back to some. Old styles of ways. We're bringing back some archeological, grape Fridays, for example. So this is an ever evolving topic. So don't panic. If it starts to feel overwhelming, just take little chunks of it. And if you're finding it overwhelming studying from a book point of view, the chemistry side of it, for example, then jump over to the history side of it. The wonderful thing about wine, and you may have heard me say it before, is that finally every high school subject that you felt didn't make sense? Or didn't have a reason in your life, make sense in a glass of wine, whether that's history, geography, math, trigonometry, all of it. Is there an, a glass of wine. So if you're finding one area of study overwhelming, when you're studying wine, then. Change the page. If you will end go look at the history, find some amazing characters study about Louis pasture and science and how that impacted the wine world. For example. So. Don't worry. It's going to feel overwhelming. There's going to be days where you're going to wonder what am I doing? But remember this as a lifelong journey and embrace the ride, don't panic to stay the course. And I will admit that there have been days where I will not have a glass of wine. I will just have vodka over ice. And that's because one becomes work sometimes that you're just always assessing. And you've got to give yourself a break. So just know that you are not alone. If. If you're feeling like sometimes when studies got really serious, really fast, you're going to do it. You have everything it takes to grow your wine knowledge. Just go step by step a day at a time. And my tip number six is practice and homework. This goes along with the stay, the course that I just mentioned, but this is a reminder that this is a big topic is going to need some dedication and some hard work. And a plan of how you're going to study this. How are you going to approach it? I had one friend joked, pice wine books generally are very large books and they weigh like big rocks. So if you are traveling, get a digital version of the book that you need, because otherwise you're going to be schlepping big books through the airport or on your car trips. So just a little bit of a helpful tip there, but studying wine may sound glamorous and it certainly can be, and it is amazing topic, but like any subject, it requires your attention. And your practice. So you're going to have to taste outside of school. You're going to have to study and keep up with the homework, going to have to draw out maps until then you see them in your sleep. And you're just going to have to keep doing the work. And I cannot say this enough, but if you are not tasting wines blind, if you are with a tasting group and you always know the wines that you are tasting, you're tasting will not get better. In my opinion, you must taste blind to develop your tasting. Senses. It's fine too, to know about a grape and dive in and do some wines, not blind, but if you really want to get better, you're going to have to learn your deduction skills, because at some point, if you're continuing your wine education, you're going to end up having to either write your guests of what the glass is in front of you. Or stand in front of a panel of judges and tell them what you've deduced the wine to be. And you're only going to get good at that. If you taste it blind and you challenge yourself, so know that you have the know that you're going to be able to build your confidence in your tasting abilities, by tasting wines blind. So don't shy away. Don't be scared to put in the work. It will all paid off and you're not going to believe how proud of yourself you're going to feel. When you perfectly nail a wine, um, an exam, it's like the best feeling in the world. And my final tip for day, and perhaps the most important is have fun. This gets serious, really fast, depending on how you're studying line. So if you are going down more formal or professional wine, Um, education route. So know that it can pick up steam and it becomes a bit of a snowball of its own. But this is such an incredible topic. It can take you around the world to visit places and the history and the science and the amazing people involved in it. So enjoy meeting new people, trying different wines from around the world, the foods that go with it, the history of all of it soak into the entire experience. Wine is meant to be enjoyed. It's meant to be shared with people. And your wine education should be just as pleasurable as sipping on your favorite glass of wine. So there you have it. Those are some of my top tips. If you will, my friend advice to you. For in what to consider when you're enrolling in line classes. And if you are looking for some more specific information about certain classes that you may be looking at, feel free to reach out to me and just send me a quick note. I'm happy to give you my thoughts on that. You can reach me@helloatwinegirlacademy.com. I'd love to hear from you and I'm here to help. If you're considering taking a certain course. And you're just not sure about it. Like I said, I'm happy to take a look at that course for you and we'll figure out how it fits in, in your wine learning journey. No on that note. I do want to say if you're new here, welcome, please know that new episodes of the podcast come out every Tuesday. And we'd love to have you along. So be sure to favorite this podcast, so you can follow along and never miss an episode. Now next week's episode, I'm going to be diving in and talking about pairings with some apple inspired recipes, and you can actually find the link in the show notes below to my fall, 2024. Pairing inspiration guide. And we're going to be walking through that guide together next week. And it's filled with some delicious recipes, some pairing ideas, as well as some cocktail, apple cocktail recipes and Calvin dose label breakdown. So I'm going to talk about a little bit of Calvin dose as well. It's probably going to be a different podcast episode, but it's in the guide. So if you'd like to follow along next week, then find the link in the show notes below, and it's going to get you your guide, and then you can follow along next week. As I go through the recipes and break down my pairing recommendations as well for some of the recipes that. I'm excited to share that with you As well, make sure you're on my email list this Friday september 7th, I'm going to be sending out the September newsletter and it's going to be filled with some extra pairing ideas for fall as well. So you won't want to miss it. You'll find the link below to get on the newsletter list if you're not already on it and watch for that in your inbox coming this Friday. Now as always, like I said, if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out, you can reach me at hello. Uh, one girl academy by email or come say hi on Instagram or Tik TOK. You'll find me at wine girl academy. And on that note, I want to wish you all a wonderful week. Happy September, cheers to you by now.