Articles

A wine writer needs a wine education

by  |  15-04-2025 ~ 6 Comments

My good friend and well-respected drinks writer, Henry Jeffreys recently wrote an engaging post titled, “Do wine writers need qualifications?” It rightly gained a great deal of attention given that both the "writing" and "education"... more »

A book review of, “Leary’s Global Wineology”

by  |  29-05-2023

For those wanting to pursue a higher level of education in wine, it can be extremely confusing to understand which direction to take. That’s why, some years ago, I wrote up this breakdown followed by... more »

Transparency, in wine certification

by  |  20-11-2020 ~ 2 Comments

I moved to Berkeley, California to complete a degree in English Literature at the University of California. Coming from a podunk town in the interior of California where most academic challenges top out at giving... more »

WSET vs CMS

by  |  20-08-2020 ~ 29 Comments

Wine education is something not to be undertaken lightly. There's the investment of time and, well, a great deal of money. There's also the issue of choosing the right direction which can be hard to... more »

Life, under Coravin

by  |  23-07-2018

The Coravin. This little device has changed the face of wine service and storage massively since its creation in 2011. The act of jabbing a hollow needle through the cork in a wine bottle, injecting... more »

Observations from the annual GuildSomm survey

by  |  26-06-2017

If you’ve not seen it, GuildSomm has posted its 2016 salary survey which anyone, even non-subscribers to the site can view. They create this by putting out a poll that people answer anonymously on the... more »

Differences of: CMS, WSET, Master Sommelier, & Master of Wine

by  |  05-12-2015 ~ 1 Comment

Please note that while there's a wealth of information here, I've written an updated version of this education analysis as well that would be worth your while to read. Years ago, I found myself quite... more »