Behind the Corkscrew: The Story of the Wine School

Alana Zerbe

Director of Wine Education

Attorney. Winemaker. Educator. If there’s a wine educator more overqualified and less pretentious, we haven’t met them.

Before joining the Wine School, Alana was on a very different trajectory. She holds a J.D. and an LL.M., and spent years practicing law before taking a hard left turn into wine. That shift wasn’t arbitrary: she also worked in wineries, merging her love of logic and viticulture. She joined the Wine School over a decade ago, first as an instructor, then as the architect behind many of the certification programs used by the National Wine School.

Today, she’s the Director of Wine Education—widely regarded as the highest-rated instructor in the school’s history. She teaches everything from Wine 101 to graduate-level certifications and remains the quiet backbone of the school’s academic standards.

Keith Wallace

Founder

Before founding the Wine School, Keith was a hard-charging journalist in Baltimore, an executive chef in Boston, and a professional winemaker in Napa. A graduate of the UC Davis viticulture and enology program, he had plans to open his own winery—until a catastrophic car accident in 1998 changed everything.

He kept the aftermath a secret for years. The accident left him with focal epilepsy, a relatively mild condition that nonetheless made winery work increasingly dangerous. Instead of retreating, Keith adapted. He began teaching wine classes for a client winery in Pennsylvania. To his surprise, he was a natural—and he found something he didn’t know he was looking for.

By 2001, he’d founded the Wine School in Manayunk. It wasn’t glamorous. The first classes were held in the back of a coffee shop, and the website—hand-coded by Keith—lived at winelust.com. But the vision was clear: bring winemaker-level education to the public, without the snobbery or smoke and mirrors.

Since then, Keith has built the Wine School into the most influential independent wine school in the country. His irreverent teaching style and deep well of knowledge have earned him a loyal following—and made him a bit of a lightning rod in the wine industry. He’s exposed industry manipulation in The Daily Beast, pushed for privatization of wine sales in Pennsylvania, and fought to create a US-based sommelier certification agency that doesn’t rely on foreign oversight. That effort eventually became the National Wine School, based in Los Angeles.

The School

2001–2004: The Manayunk Experiment

In the early 2000s, Philadelphia was a wine education wasteland. The city’s only dedicated wine schools had long since shuttered. Tastings were relegated to restaurant backrooms. Keith wasn’t planning to change that. He just wanted to teach a few good classes.

But word spread. By 2002, classes were selling out. Within a year, the school had outgrown its coffee shop digs and moved into the wine cellar of a local steakhouse. The name changed, too—from WineLust to something more direct: The Wine School of Philadelphia.

2005–2012: Fairmount Roots

The Wine School’s first real home was a rundown block at 20th and Fairmount. It was not what you’d call an “ideal location.” But that didn’t matter. The school flourished, developing its Core Wine Program—still the foundation of its curriculum today—and cultivating a student body that included future winemakers, sommeliers, writers, and educators.

The school also launched the Philly Beer School during this era, giving voice to the city’s beer geeks before craft beer hit the mainstream.

2013–2015: Rittenhouse, Take One

By the time the school moved into its Rittenhouse mansion—a 19th-century brownstone that once housed Wine Spectator’s publishing offices—it was already a national presence. Students came from across the country. Wine schools from Texas to Georgia sought Keith’s guidance in launching their own programs.

This era also marked the formal beginning of the National Wine School, an accreditation agency launched by Keith to provide U.S.-based sommelier certifications. It was a necessary disruption to an industry reliant on UK-based programs that weren’t aligned with American law.

Keith also found time to publish a cookbook (through Perseus), campaign for privatization of the PLCB, and, somehow, still teach classes every week.

2015–Present: Rittenhouse, Take Two

In late 2015, the Wine School moved down the block to 109 S. 22nd Street. Keith, armed with power tools and questionable carpentry skills, turned the space into a wine education haven. Around this time, longtime instructor Zach Morris departed, and Alana Zerbe stepped in as Director of Wine Education.

With her at the helm, the School doubled down on its mission: high-level education delivered with warmth, humor, and zero pretense.

Today, the Wine School offers classes in wine, beer, spirits, and cocktails, all taught by top professionals. Alumni work across the industry: in wineries, restaurants, import firms, and media outlets. Some have even launched their own schools.

Corkscrewed and Proud of It

The Wine School has never shied away from taking on the wine establishment. Keith’s reporting has appeared on NPR, MSNBC, the BBC, and in countless print outlets. He’s worked with lawmakers to ensure any changes to Pennsylvania’s liquor laws protect small businesses and consumers.

That adversarial streak isn’t about picking fights—it’s about protecting students and consumers from the darker side of the industry: inflated prices, fake prestige, and backroom deals. The School exists to democratize wine education. To teach people how to think, not what to drink.

Giving Back

The Wine School isn’t just a business—it’s part of Philadelphia. Over the years, it has donated more than $75,000 in classes and events to local schools and nonprofits. It continues to support Philly’s culinary and wine scene in every way it can.

The Next Chapter

What’s next for the Wine School? We don’t know yet—but we’re raising a glass to find out. As Keith puts it:

“Not everyone gets to do something this awesome. When you get the chance, you take it. And if you’re a little crazy, even better.”