What ’ s the real value of a great wine education ?
Kent Wine School
What ’ s the real value of a great wine education ?
Isn ’ t ‘ wine tasting ’ just a fancy way of saying ‘ wine drinking ’? What ’ s the point of analysing the aroma of a wine ? How much will I really gain from a professional wine course ? All brilliant and frequently asked questions . Being skilled at wine tasting may not seem like a genuine accomplishment , and it can be hard to justify or even quantify the tangible benefits of such a skill .
And yet , using your senses and knowledge to evaluate the quality , style and then justify ( or not as the case may be ) the price point of a bottle of wine is a skill for both the wine enthusiast as much as the paid professional .
What can you gain from it , as a wine enthusiast ? Wine education doesn ’ t need to be the complex , overly verbose and , dare I say it , snobbish pastime it can sometimes be depicted as . At a simple level , it can arm you with the basic tools you need to make better , smarter wine buying choices .
Do you always buy the same trusted wine bottle in your weekly shop ? Do you take wine as a present based on its attractive label ? Do you always choose the second from the top on a restaurant wine list ? The supermarkets know this is how most people make their wine buying decisions and use that to their full advantage . Wouldn ’ t it be better to base your wine buying on understanding labelling and provenance ?
In the UK , we ’ re increasingly concerned about the origins of our food . Gradually , we ’ re becoming better informed about its origin , the welfare of the animal and the taste of the final product . That desire to be informed is very slowly creeping into the world of wine . If you are consuming a product , you are better able to assess it when you are armed with great knowledge – and that comes from great education .
A more in-depth professional wine course is of equal benefit to the enthusiast as they are to the hospitality professional . You gain the skills needed to assess great wine from mediocre , determine value for money , recognise labelling terminology and evaluate whether you are getting a valuefor-money product .
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