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Where should I start learning
how to taste wine?

How do you teach people how to taste wine? Where should I start?

These were the questions that John Ennis asked me during a conversation we had for an episode of AigoraCast, his podcast.




John was curious about my reconversion from being a Corporate researcher to running an online education platform dedicated to change the way people learn how to taste wine by adopting proven sensory science principles.


Click on the image to access the podcast episode.

How to learn how to taste wine


Let me reply with another question: What is your purpose? 


Why do you want to learn to taste wine? 


I often hear the following aspirations as a response.

  • You want to confidently identify wine aromas and tastes that you like or don’t like, so you can learn the wine styles that you enjoy the most.

  • You are curious and want to identify wine aromas and tastes to understand where they come from: the grape varieties, the winemaking process.

  • You love wine and want to work in this industry: you train to obtain a professional certification that will open opportunities to work in the wine industry or the hospitality industry.

  

       Whatever is your answer, it all starts by understanding:

  • How your senses of smell and taste work;

  • How you built your aroma memories from your experience growing up and to this day;

  • How you need to retrain your brain to connect your wine aroma perceptions with the aroma source;

  • How important it is to practice consistently.

Introducing Wine Aroma Description Essentials


At the end of October, ten people signed up to become founding members of Wine Aroma Description Essentials, an online course I wanted to pilot before launching it in January 2021.


While the course focus was on aroma specifically, their learning journey enabled them to understand how they senses work and how to use them more efficiently to taste and describe wines precisely. They also learn to practice with homemade aroma standards to get familiar with new sensations and memorize them. There were a few Ah Ah moments, as shared on these testimonials.


“Words sometimes outrun the reality of tasting. Sensations are inevitable products of experience and physical variations in our senses, which we can educate with attention and openness to new experiences. “

"There are no wrong answers. I must encode aromas for subsequent detection--requires practice. So I need to learn how to practice well so I can learn aromas efficiently.”


Thanks to the founding members feedback, the course is under revision to be up for welcoming a new student cohort in January 2021. 

If you'd like to be kept informed when the course becomes available, join the waiting list below.


Published December 12, 2020

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