Lately I’ve been curious about any online classes we could take to learn more about wine. Free would be preferable, of course! I spent a pleasant afternoon searching around the Internet, and wanted to share some of my wine education finds with you!
World of Wine: From Grape to Glass is presented by the University of Adelaide. This free online course lasts six weeks. Expect to spend 2-3 hours per week devoted to this class.
Learn about the principles and practices of how grapes are grown and wine is made. Whether you’re a wine novice or a seasoned oenophile, you’ll learn to confidently describe wine appearance, aroma, flavour and taste.
The BC Wine Server Course is intended for restaurant and bar staff, but could teach you a lot about British Columbia wines. The self-directed course takes approximately 1 1/2 hours to complete. You’ll watch several short videos and learn about the history of the British Columbia wine industry.
The World of Wine with Jancis Robinson is a free hour-long course on the history of wine and how it’s made. You must enroll at Udemy to begin watching the video.
Similarly, enroll at Udemy to experience the free one-hour video course, “Wine in One Hour.” You’ll learn about viticulture and growing methods; learn the top red and white wine varietals; learn to properly store wine; understand how to taste wine; and learn to serve it properly.
Ste. Michelle Wine Estates has the most incredibly useful, beautiful website to teach employees and servers about wine. This three-part self-guided course includes lessons on making wine, tasting wine, and on serving wine. It’s easy to navigate and full of interesting facts.
If you’re a member of Wine Spectator, you can attend Wine Spectator School for free. The self-paced course lets you download worksheets and study guides, and take online quizzes just for fun. (Note that yearly membership at Wine Spectator is $59.95).
Coursera’s “Wine Tasting: Sensory Techniques for Wine Analysis” begins April 2. It’s hosted by University of California, Davis. The course lasts for five weeks, and you can expect to put in 2-3 hours per week and complete a final project.
This course is primarily for anyone who wants to learn how to properly taste wine or how to pair wine with their food. For anyone looking to become a sommelier, serve in a restaurant, or just want be knowledgeable when tasting wine.
“Taste of the Wine” is a free wine course you can take online. If you enjoy it, you can sign up and pay for the premium course afterwards.
The course includes:
- Instant Wine Course Tasting Guide
- Wine Tasting Toolkit (Your tasting trainer)
- Wine Library (Logs your tasting notes)
- Wine Scoring Tool
- Profiles of Popular Wine Styles
- Food and Wine Matching Tool
You can watch several educational wine videos at Andrea Wine for free: How to Open a Wine Bottle,
Top 10 Wine Myths, part 1; Introduction to the ‘Big Six’ Grapes; and Key Food and Wine Pairing Principles.
If you enjoyed those videos, you can sign up for her $29.95 wine course here.
Over at Wine-Pages.com, you can attend their free Wine School. You’ll take an online wine course where you read pages about the history and geography of wine growing and wine making, info on red and white wines, facts on sparkling and sweet wines, pages on wine and food pairings, and advice for choosing and storing wine. There are also wine quizzes, wine facts, a wine glossary, info on wine regions, and wine book reviews.
There’s a fabulous library of videos at Berry Bros. & Rudd. You can watch videos on storing wine, when a particular wine is ready to drink, the difference in wine styles, which wines go with Asian food, what to do with leftover wine, what wines go with vegetarian foods, which wines go with meat, which wine glasses to use, and many more. Great resource!
Another outstanding resource is Wine Education.com. They have a “ Learn A Little About Wine” page and for more advanced wine aficionados, a “Learn More About Wine” area.
You can take a self-directed online class, “ Introduction to Wines 101” from Open Learning. It’s by Taylor’s University.
I wanted to end with Vinepair’s Wine 101, an excellent resource for learning about wine. Read your way through
sections on tasting wine, types of wines and grapes, serving wine, and fun wine facts.
Hope you find these resources helpful in your quest for more wine knowledge! I know I certainly have a lot of reading and video watching in store for me!
-Carrie
