Washington -DC Wine Schools and ...

Long story short, my daughter wants to learn a bit more about wine. General knowledge stuff. Any suggestions on a wine school would be greatly appreciated.

Also, any suggestions on a wine book along the same lines would be useful.

Would suggest looking for a WSET APP in DC. I’ve heard Capital Wine School mentioned a few times. If your daughter knows the difference between red and white wine than she can skip WSET 1 and go straight to WSET 2.

Books in the mean time I would suggest would be The Wine Bible by Karen Macneil and maybe an online subscription you and her can share to JancisRobinson.com which includes a digital copy of the Oxford Companion to Wine.

Capital Wine School is a great option. Jay Youmans, the founder, is a MW and they do Wine Scholar Guild as well as WSET.

And to shill, we offer classes here at our shop every other Thursday and this month’s theme is French Wines 101. Would be happy to tell you more if you are interested.

I couldn’t figure out the new PM thing so Mods if you need to remove please go for it

Or she can get a tastevin and just follow Kevin Shin around

Tasting around at various shops and reading something like Jancis Robinson’s book can be more enjoyable and is certainly far cheaper. It doesn’t take much effort to taste 20-30 wines a week for free if you’re in the city! You also often meet winemakers or distributors

Jay-

I will echo what Dan said - there is practically a tasting every night somewhere in DC and most have very knowledgeable folks that can help. Where in DC is she located?

Greg

I got my WSET certification from Capital Wine School. They’re fabulous! Highly recommend them! They also do one-off classes all sorts of topics, so she may want to attend one or two of those first before jumping into a WSET or other multi-course commitment.

As for wine books, I believe there’s a good thread on here if you search for it. There’s a ton of great stuff out there. Just depends on what she’s looking for: reference style, or more guide-type books, or on a specific subject, etc.

Warren’s store also tastes wines every Saturday afternoon. Going there to taste wine is a great way to learn about wine. https://www.weygandtwines.com/tastings-block

Of the free tastings in the area, Bassins/MacArthur is also a great place, typically with tasting Thursday evening and Saturday afternoon. Weygandt, as others ha e noted, is phenomenal.

I can also vouch for the high quality of the offerings at Capitol Wine School.

I am told Bassins changed hands

Anyone have more info on this

Massive thread drift I know but reading this thread made me think of it

That would be big news to me. Perhaps you are thinking about Mark Wessels, the longtime manager semi-retiring from the store (he and his wife bought a coffee farm in Kona) and turning over the managerial reins to Phil Bernstein (Mark is still handling Bordeaux for the store).

I can add some good words about Jay Youmans. I studied with him before he established the school. He is a very good instructor, not to mention a MW.

The Wine Scholar Guild (previously the French Wine Society) is also well worth the time and money.

You can’t really compare a brief weekly tasting at a store with an organized course. These two are some of the best available.

Didn’t realize that was Warren from Weygandt. As proof of the informal method of education, he pointed me to some great Loire wines when I was first learning about wine in late 2013!

Always a great place to taste solid wines and the staff, including Warren, really know their stuff and are eager to educate.

Hi Howard,

Here’s the updated reference to the tastings and other events: Weekly Tastings & Events — Weygandt Wines
I studied at Washington State University (Viticulture & Enology, graduated this year).

Arthur

Hello, I’m glad to be a part of this community. Frankly speaking, I have never been a participant in a wine school. Nevertheless, I hope I will learn something new here

Logan welcome. What number did you find this thread? And yes you will learn plenty about wine.