WSG

Where is your wine journey taking you? Diving into your study materials, tasting a memorable wine, enjoying an exquisite meal, attending a tasting or touring wine country? Put your Wine Scholar Tag on the picture and share your experience on Instagram with #WineScholar hashtag!

When most Italian wine consumers think about Italy, they envision the rolling hills of Tuscany or the sun-drenched shores of the Amalfi coast. However, there is much more to Italy and its wines than these landscapes. This month at WSG we turn our attention northward to the land of the Alps and the Dolomites, where a whole other Italy exists. Some of Italy's most distinctive wines come from its far north where alpine viticulture is the norm and snowfall and sunshine shape the vineyard seasons.  Trentino-Alto Adige, Valle d’Aosta and parts of Lombardia form Italy's alpine wine heartland. Here, altitude replaces latitude as the defining climatic factor and centuries of mountain farming have produced wines of tension, precision and remarkable site expression.  Below are 10 things you might not know about Alpine Italy — and why they matter. 

Curious about Wine Scholar Guild trips, dear reader? I’m no expert on wine tourism, but I have been fortunate enough to go on five (!) WSG trips: Alsace, Champagne, Languedoc-Roussillon, Loire, and Rhône. Below I share my thoughts on why these trips were so great and why I keep coming back for more.

Deep dive into Trentino, Franciacorta & Lugana Who could have imagined there would be so much to know about these three wine regions! Maurizio Broggi, along with the Consorzia of Trentino, Franciacorta and Lugana took us, a group of Italian Wine Scholar® educators, into a deep dive to discover what these wine regions were all about. We had the opportunity to discover in detail the elements contributing to their uniqueness in styles and in quality along with the challenges they are facing.

The Wine Scholar Guild is pleased to annonced the winners of its Instructor and Program Provider of the Year Awards. Instructor of the Year is an award of excellence recognizing creative and effective classroom instruction for the French or Italian Wine Scholar study & certification programs. The recipient is selected based upon outstanding presentation skills, organization and conviviality —all talents reflected in

The Wine Scholar Guild takes great pride in its high-caliber program provider network. Our instructors are consummate and extraordinarily educated wine professionals. They stand out among their peers.   Each year, we honor the best of the best in recognition of their stellar accomplishments as teachers and program providers. The Wine Scholar Guild is pleased to reward the best Instructors and Program Providers with WSG Awards for each category: French Wine Scholar® and Italian Wine Scholar®.     Cru Consultancy(Vancouver, Canada)INTERVIEW Tanya Morning Star Darling(Seattle, WA)INTERVIEW AWSEC (Hong Kong)INTERVIEW Jimmy Smith(London, UK)INTERVIEW  

Wine Scholar Guild is proud to honor those who set themselves apart by their extraordinary professional accomplishment in 2019. We take great pleasure in announcing the WSG Program Provider Awards, WSG Top Scorers Awards and WSG Master of Wine Candidate scholarships.

How did that happen? Call it what you want (fashion, peer-group pressure, herd instinct, a historical hangover) but somehow or other Alsace has ended up as France’s most neglected and misunderstood wine region.

Water: the source of life Since our return to Alsace ten years ago, my wife Céline, my daughter Zoé and I never tire of walking the countless hiking trails that crisscross the Vosges, often offering breathtaking panoramas of the mountains and the Alsace plain. On the days when the sky is at its purest, even the snow-covered summits of the Alps can be seen in the distance on the horizon.

Andrea E. Eby comes to the Wine Scholar Guild from a background in wine and education. Andrea is excited to join the WSG team to oversee all aspects of WSG's Italian Wine programs. Andrea earned the Diploma in Wine and Spirits (with Distinction) from the Wine &

The Wine Scholar Guild is starting 2019 with a bang. Andrew Jefford, award winning author and columnist for Decanter, has joined the WSG education team as Academic Advisor. This marks an exciting new chapter in the Guild’s evolution and growth. Julien Camus, WSG President, comments, “We are thrilled to have Andrew come on board and are looking forward to his contribution towards our goal of becoming the preeminent provider of specialized wine study programs.” 

We recently caught up with Justin Martindale MW, our Membership & Community Manager, to find out what’s happening in the WSG Membership program and how it all gets put together.

Summary: In this video, Justin and Chris explore ageabilty in rosé wines by tasting two vintages of the esteemed Clos Cibonne winery in Provence. They discuss ageabilty, quality, oak and how to spot aged characteristics in this style of wine. About the Speakers: Justin Martindale is the Wine Scholar Guild Membership Manager and one of our in-house Masters of Wine. Justin passed the notoriously challenging MW tasting exam with the Madame Bollinger Award,

Summary: The 'Beyond the Textbook' series seeks to get under the skin of specific varieties and regions from around the world. Here Justin tastes 3 amazing, but very different style from Viré-Clessé. It's Chardonnay, but not as you know it... Details of all three wines can be found in the attached pdf About the Speaker: Justin Martindale is the Wine Scholar Guild Membership Manager and one of our in-house Masters of Wine. Justin passed the

Summary: In this video we taste three exquisite examples of Semillon/Sémillon from France and Australia, each with a really nice bit of bottle age. Justin recaps some of the textbook knowledge about this grape variety, as well as the key winemaking and viticultural factors that give the wines their unique personalities. We also cover some blind tasting tips about how you might tell these wines apart from other similarly styled examples from around the

Summary: This video explores some of the key techniques in tasting red wines, that enable you to make an objective analysis of its quality, and also take the first steps towards identifying the variety and where in the world the wine comes from. This one is designed for those of you who don't have a huge amount of wine tasting experience and want to get to grips with the basics. Details of all the wines are in the attached pdf. About the

Summary: This is a nuts-and-bolts introduction to some basic white wine tasting techniques, aimed at those of you who don't have a huge amount of prior tasting experience. Here we'll discuss some tips for how to get the most out of your white wines, and take the first steps into how you might decipher a grape variety and an objective quality assessment of a wine. You can find all the details of the wines in the pdf download above. About the

Summary: In this video we'll taste 3 different Chardonnays of different styles, quality and origins, and see how we might make some arguments for deciding the variety, where in the world they come from and how good they are using evidence from the glass. All the details about the wines can be found in the pdf link above. About the Speaker: Justin Martindale is the Wine Scholar Guild Membership Manager and one of our in-house Masters of Wine. Justin

Summary: In this video Justin and Chris explore the world of Rosé, sharing tips and techniques around how to taste quality and starting to make arguments for logical regions of origin. We cover colour, winemaking signatures and what makes a great Rosé through a tasting of three very different wines from the south of France.  Full details of all the wines can be found in the pdf document above. About the

Summary: In this video we'll taste 3 different Syrahs of different styles, quality and origins, and see how we might make some arguments for deciding the variety, where in the world they come from and how good they are using evidence from the glass. All the details about the wines can be found in the pdf link above. About the Speaker: Justin Martindale is the Wine Scholar Guild Membership Manager and one of our in-house Masters of Wine. Justin