by Adam Chase | Mar 18, 2025
I spent much of last month in one of my favorite countries: Australia. This is my 15th time visiting Australia and each time I build some time in for winery visits. This year I covered quite a bit of distance, by going to the top three producing Australian states: South Australia, Victoria, New South Wales. This is no mean feat. Australia is as big as the US, and I covered an area roughly from Texas through North Carolina.
I love these types of trips because they continue to build my wine knowledge. There is no substitute for visiting a wine region, seeing the topography, feeling the climate and meeting the people. No book can replicate this experience. In this review I will give you my thoughts on three standout wineries in each state.
I started in Victoria and travelled an hour south from Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula. The Peninsula is like a finger stretching into Port Phillip Bay with a ridge down the middle. The topography is great for winemaking and allows growers to plant on gentle slopes and angle vines to make the most of the sun. I am always amazed at how much cooler it is in Mornington vs. the capital city or Melbourne – great climate for wine grapes!
Ten Minutes By Tractor is one of Mornington’s premier wine producers and the wines did not disappoint. The tasting room looks out over the vineyards and allows you to see the plants producing the wines you are drinking. Ten Minutes by Tractor is known for its range of single vineyard Pinot Noirs – all of which are layered with fruit and balanced by enough acidity and plush tannin to give them great structure. Surprisingly, for me the standout was a blend of sites called “Up the Hill Pinot Noir.” The ripe red fruit of cherry and strawberry is well defined and slightly jammy in the best possible way. Check out the phenomenal fixed price restaurant at the winery but make reservations well in advance.
Next, I travelled to South Australia with its capital city of Adelaide. It had been some time since I have been to the state that represents 50% of Australian wine production. I travelled north to the Barossa Valley, known for its rich, ripe Shiraz. In the best of times Barossa is a relatively flat, dry area, but this year I was amazed at just how dry it was. Clearly, water is an issue, and I think all producers will be wary of fires.
The standout winery in Barossa was Torbreck and there wide range of Shiraz. Scott McDonald Senior Torbreck winemaker, took me through this range along with his equally good other varietal wines. The basic Torbreck “Woodcutter’s Shiraz” is dependable as a textbook example of basic Barossa. The standout wine was the premium priced “The Laird” Shiraz. It shows power and elegance together and is clearly a special wine.
The final stop was the Hunter Valley in New South Wales. About three hours northeast of Sydney, the Hunter is a beautiful valley with rolling hills in the shadow of Australia’s Great Dividing Range mountains. Usually in February the Hunter Valley is incredibly hot, but I lucked out a had cooler weather. The Hunter is for Sydney what Napa and Sonoma are for San Francisco and there is no shortage of great resorts and restaurants.
No trip to the Hunter would be complete without visiting Tyrrell’s. This winery put Hunter Valley Semillon on the international map, along with rich Hunter Valley Shiraz and what I consider one of the best Chardonnays in Australia. I was lucky enough to spend time with Bruce Tyrrell. His family has been making wine here for 5 generations and over 160 years. Bruce’s stories about the past and today give context to the region and never fail to put a smile on my face. All of the wines here were outstanding, but the surprise was Tyrrell’s Fiano. They have taken this Italian grape and given it new personality. In a word, this wine is delicious, and I hope it eventually gets exported in large volume to the US.
All three of these visits reinforces what I have learned through WSET and wine education in general. Whether you are an aspiring sommelier or just a wine lover, this kind of travel underscores the importance of getting out to wineries as one of the best ways to enhance wine knowledge.
by Adam Chase | Oct 8, 2024
I often hear from people who take WSET Level 2 that they are reluctant to go on to Level 3. They feel they are now adequate tasters and have enough information to navigate their way through the world of wine.
This is a shame and people who avoid WSET Level 3 are really missing out. This course takes you into the mind of the grape grower and wine maker in a way that is far beyond the basics. We discover pop culture and its history, science, politics and business trends. Yes, you gain expertise and sommelier skills, but you also gain exposure to how people in different geographies think about wine and life, as well as how those thoughts have developed over time.
In short, WSET Level 3 is a culture course. It is also a history and current affairs course. We discuss how wine and wealth often have gone hand in hand through history, but also how millennials are now shaping what wine is and how producers need to talk about their product. Along the way we will touch on the French Revolution, I love Lucy, Crocodile Dundee, Climate Change, and the rise of tariffs that make already pricey French wines that much more expensive!
So, take WSET Level 3 to build sommelier skills and general expertise – if that is your goal. But don’t not take it because you think those are the only things you will learn. This is a dynamic course that will stimulate ideas and give you a unique view of the world today.
Click here for more information on WSET Level 3.
by Adam Chase | Sep 26, 2024
Wine education is undergoing a major overhaul. Technology including AI, is changing the way education is delivered. In the past, people had one of two choices: come to a scheduled in-person class or self-study. The change, hastened by COVID, offers anyone interested in WSET certification to learn about wine, become a sommelier or just gain expertise for any beverage job tremendous flexibility.
Online learning now comes in multiple forms:
- Live webinar classes with tasting kits
- Recorded classes with kits that can be watched at a student’s convenience
- A suite of lectures, study support materials, and tasting and theory exercises that are accessed at will to improve exam success
- Pure self-study
- A combination of coming to an in-person course and using online resources
For example, WSET level 3 Wine participants who choose an in-person course option that may meet weekly, can also view class presentations at their own leisure with class wine lists. That means if they miss a week’s class, they actually won’t miss the material discussed, as it is online to watch whenever they want. People who take an online class can now choose to get a tasting kit and taste along with other students and a teacher during a webinar – live or recorded.
AI is now able to use materials to help create practice exam questions. Students can develop their own study support and improve the range of study options.
Ten years ago, taking a wine course online was a difficult prospect. Today, someone who wants to become a wine expert or build sommelier skills can come to an in-person course and also have a digital component, or the can take a purely online course that allows them to interact at their own pace with other students.
Click here to see WSET Level 3 options
The future of wine education continues to quickly evolve and offer more benefits to anyone interested in developing wine expertise!
by Adam Chase | Sep 12, 2024
As wine and spirits educator I speak with hundreds of people every year who tell me of their interest in taking a professional wine course. Some are interested in a career as a sommelier or wine retailer, while others simply want to have the skills of a sommelier to better understand and enjoy wine. Most of those people, however, never take the next step and enroll. I think I understand the reasons for this inertia.
What most people mean by a “professional wine course” is a class with a little more depth than the fun wine tasting they did as a purely social event. The options for these types of courses continue to proliferate and understanding the array of offerings can be difficult.
Many people are nervous about the “professional tasting” element of a course. It seems difficult and they don’t want to put themselves out there and look dumb. Other folks just don’t want the pressure of what they think will be a rigorous exam. The rumor on the street is only a small handful of people ever pass.
I want to debunk these fearful impressions – at least when it comes to Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) beginner level courses. The go to course that I will use is the WSET Level 2 Certificate in Wine. This is a beginner course and usually the perfect place for someone to start to build their wine skills and knowledge.
Unlike many of the myriad courses that are available, WSET Level 2 is a global program. Meaning the same course is delivered around the world in over 800 locations. This means that if you travel to wineries in any major country the staff there will have heard of WSET and respect your knowledge and the influence you may have on other people’s wine decisions. The access to ideas, people and of course exclusive tastings is unmatched by any other beginner program.
Despite the “Level 2” name WSET’s course is a beginner program that assumes you have no going in knowledge. It is expected that you may not know how to professionally taste or may confuse Bordeaux with Burgundy. That means looking dumb is almost impossible, and in the rare cases where it happens the attitude in the class is warm, encouraging and everyone laughs with you, not at you.
The WSET Level 2 exam is only 50 multiple choice questions – and you just need 55% of them correct to pass. Sure, you do need to spend time reading and reviewing the class textbook, but the pressure is low, and the text is short, to the point and layered with charts and pictures. There is no blind tasting on the exam at all!
So, if you have ever thought about taking the step of enrolling in a professional wine class let me urge you to try WSET Level 2. It will be fun, informative and build your confidence as you develop sommelier-level expertise! To see the next Level 2 courses we are offering go to Wine courses for beginners.
by Adam Chase | Aug 19, 2024
So you’ve decided that you would like to work in the wine world, but, with little experience, you wonder if it is even possible. The short answer is, yes, it is. The way to do this, however, requires four keys: knowledge, confidence, networking and humility.
Years ago when I was looking to make the transition into the industry I realized I needed to expand my wine knowledge. Fun evening consumer classes were enjoyable, but I really wasn’t learning more than how to better select a wine off a list or navigate a shop’s selections. So I decided to explore the courses industry insiders valued. That led me to the WSET Level 2 and Level 3 programs.
Level 2 was eye opening. It not only gave me tasting tools, but also information on the basic choices winemakers make that affect style, quality and price. A fellow student in that course told me about an entry level retail position in a local retail store. The knowledge I accumulated in Level 2 gave me the confidence to interview with the shop manager and for the next 3 months on weekends I was dusting and stocking shelves, cutting up cardboard boxes and doing inventory checks.
This entry level work took some humility. I had an MBA from a great school and none of that course work included how to punch a time card or the best way to lift heavy cases! In fact one day a recruiter who was trying to get me to take a senior management job came in to the shop, saw me in my store uniform and gave me a look that said she was appalled at what I was doing. I never heard from her again…and I could not have been happier!
WSET Level 3 and then the Diploma program gave me even more knowledge, confidence and a network of connections. I became a wine and spirits teacher and eventually started my own business teaching WSET courses. By 2012 I had been named Wine Educator of the Year and regional wine associations were coming to me for advice and consultation.
The key success factors for me were being willing to do anything to gain some experience in wine and combining that with structured education. The education part was critical. It took time away from other things and certainly cost me more money than a consumer fun wine class would have, but it was an investment well worth it.
Of course I am biased, but if you would like to learn more about WSET wine classes check out the range of courses at https://www.grapeexperience.com/. Also, never hesitate to reach out here with questions.
