Become a Wine Connoisseur

Want to level up your wine skills and become a wine connoisseur? In this article, we outline the skills you need to be your own sommelier.

Buy Like A Sommelier

Great wines are discovered when current favorites become too expensive. Sommeliers need interesting, relevant, and well-priced wines.

To get wines like this, you must step far beyond the familiar. The great undiscovered wines come from unpopular or unknown wine regions in partnership with passionate local winemakers. Look at what the current generation of vignerons is doing in Beaujolais, France, and Kakheti, Georgia!

To achieve this, you’ll need a wine education and maybe even travel to wine country, just like a sommelier.

Get A Wine Education

Traveling to wine country is like going to a museum. It’s an experience, but it’s not an education. Your mind will be expanded, but not in any substantial way.

As a rule, don’t expect an education from anyone looking to sell you something. Wine shops exist to sell you wine. Wine schools exist to educate you.

There are three avenues to learning about wine: taking an online wine course, taking a sommelier course locally, or taking a wine-tasting class.

Of the three, a sommelier course is the best option, followed by an online wine program. We recommend the National Wine School over the Court of Master Sommeliers and the Wine & Spirits Education Trust.

Travel to Wine Regions

After you’ve taken a wine course, it’s the perfect time to go on a wine vacation. You’ll appreciate your experience to the maximum.

We recommend traveling to France, Spain, or Italy for your first wine vacation. Drink the classics! Explore the storied wine regions and delve into the local cultures. Having a wine education before traveling makes the adventure more profound and exhilarating.

If you want to stay local, there are plenty of high-quality East Coast wineries to explore.

Join a Wine Club

Another great way to get into wine is to join a wine club. It’s not a replacement for wine education (nothing is), but it will get you started and allow you to explore becoming a wine connoisseur. If you live in the Philly region, the Wine School has a wine club that offers free monthly events and discounts on all our wine education programs.

Join a Tasting Group

One of the best ways to enhance your wine knowledge and palate is by joining a wine-tasting group. These groups offer the opportunity to taste a wide variety of wines, often from regions or varietals you may not have considered. You’ll learn from the experiences of others and refine your ability to detect subtle differences and qualities in wines. Look for local wine clubs or online communities that host regular tasting events.

Attend Wine Festivals

Wine festivals are another excellent avenue to deepen your appreciation for wine. These events bring together numerous winemakers and enthusiasts, providing a unique opportunity to sample a vast array of wines in a short period of time. Not only will you get to taste different wines, but you’ll also have the chance to meet the winemakers and learn about their craft firsthand. Festivals can be found globally, from the renowned Bordeaux Wine Festival in France to local events in your region.

Build a Wine Cellar?

Most wine connoisseurs eventually want to age some wines. At the Wine School, we recently opened up two wines aged since 2006. Both were jaw-droppingly beautiful, and everyone in those wine classes was stunned into silence.

One of those wines was a Montefalco Rosso from Paolo Bea, valued at several hundred dollars. The other was an eight-dollar Spanish Tempranillo. Price isn’t the determining factor in how wines age well. The most important factor is the wine cellar itself. The other is the composition of the wine. The right combination of tartaric acid and pH will allow a wine to age well.

If you have the resources, it’s time to build a wine cellar!

Wine Connoisseur vs Sommelier

The wine connoisseur/sommelier division is one of semantics. A sommelier is someone who works in wine as a career. To become a sommelier, one should have both certification and a job in the wine sector.

Some old-guard winos say that a sommelier should be employed in a restaurant. However, after the pandemic, this is no longer the case. If you don’t work in the wine trade, you should consider yourself a wine connoisseur.

Wine Connoisseurs Don’t Smell

If you douse yourself with scents, you can’t smell. And those around you can’t smell the wine, either. If you need to drown your stink in layers of cologne or perfume, you don’t need a wine tasting. You need a doctor’s appointment.

If you fancy yourself a wine connoisseur, you should take the zero-scent ethos to an extreme. Plenty of products keep you as scentless as a heavenly cloud.

Soaps. Hand soaps should be scent-free. Does the wine smell like peaches, or is that just the cheap perfumes in your soap? The same goes for moisturizers.

Shampoo. Everyone has their own brand they love. But staying away from scent is critical since your hair is right next to your face. OGX’s Argan Oil Shampoo is an all-around great option, as is their Biotin Conditioner.

Deodorants. Just go for unscented, okay? The scent isn’t what keeps you from being stinky; it’s the Zirconium Tetrachlorohydrex Glycine Complex. We have no idea what to recommend if you opt for a natural deodorant.

Hair Products. If you use a hair pomade, use a scent-free one with bentonite, an all-natural clay used in winemaking. Bentonite is a fantastic product for hair and skin rejuvenation.

Toothpaste. No one should have to decide between oral hygiene and tasting wine. Indeed, dedicated wine connoisseurs use toothpaste without Sodium lauryl sulfate, which makes wine and OJ taste super acidic after brushing your teeth. For brands, we recommend CloSYS Fluoride Toothpaste.

By following these steps, you will enhance your wine knowledge and immerse yourself in the vibrant and diverse world of wine culture.