Upcoming Classes

What sets The Wine School Apart?

It's all about you. We won't dictate how wine should taste or what you should like. Instead, we provide the tools to help you discover your unique palate and passion for wine.

Natural wine focus. Natural wine is the new old frontier in winemaking, and we are proponents. In addition to the environmental benefits, wines made from organic and regenerative vineyards are safer for vineyard stewards and the animals who live on the land. 

However, natural wine goes beyond farming; wine is more vibrant and expressive when it has no or minimal interventions. Natural wines can have aromas and flavors that might seem unusual, even off-putting, and sometimes we'll use wines that might seem "flawed" for demonstration purposes. However, we meticulously choose wines that are, above all, delicious.

The larger context. If you want to thoroughly understand natural wine, you need to learn about it not as an isolated sector but as part of a long and sorted history and context. Many natural wine trends today are reactions against and even outgrowths of conventional winemaking and its institutions.

Historical context.Wine history, whether in formal settings or in casual conversation, has been taught in a white supremacist vacuum, omitting the history of ethnic cleansing and oppression that it birthed and continues to allow the wine industry to thrive. Wine history has been whitewashed to death. We’re about peeling off the layers and providing accurate and inclusive information.

Global context. Eurocentricity runs rife in other education forums, especially those that use the word "master" in their titles. Our classes consider cuisines from all over in our discussions about food pairing and wine flavors. We try to use wines made by women, Black, Brown, and Indigenous winemakers as much as possible. 

Our values and transparency. We're deeply appreciative of the distributors and wineries that provide wines for our classes. While some companies may be unable to donate, we're dedicated to supporting small businesses whenever possible. We only collaborate with companies that share our values, including fair labor practices and responsible environmental stewardship, ensuring our students and sponsors that we operate with integrity and transparency. 

How our classes benefit wine professionals

We provide wine professionals with a viewpoint they will not find elsewhere. Instead of teaching critical thinking and tasting, the WSET, MW, and MS have a set idea of what is considered a wine flaws and what makes a wine delicious, grapes noble, and regions superior. Their teaching breeds conformity and homogeneity in wine, indoctrinating students that there is such a thing as "correct" or "good" wine, rather than encouraging them to pursue their own wine journey. These organizations are more about teaching to pass a test than deep learning. The Vinguard teaches wine professionals how to critically evaluate wine and come to their own conclusions.

Wine certification bodies are often inaccessible to many because of their high costs: $7K for the Court of Master Sommelier examinations alone. In addition to the course, people spend thousands of dollars on travel and wine to prepare for the exams. The result is that those with access to money, corporate sponsorship, or other resources have an advantage. The Vinguard wine classes are financially accessible. Thanks to the generosity of our wine school sponsors, we can pass on discounted rates to wine industry professionals. We are offering scholarships to those who want to take our classes but are short on funds. 

Our instructors

Vinguard founder Pamela Busch is the wine school director and the principal teacher in most classes. They've taught hundreds of wine professionals and consumers about wine tasting, regions, history, and how to trust their palates over the last 30+ years.

We also have guest speakers who are incredibly knowledgeable about specific regions. 

Past speakers included: Lee Campbell of Commonwealth Crush, Álvaro de la Viña of Selections de la Viña, Nadia Dmytriw of Floraison Selections, Eric Danch of Danch and Granger Selections, Alice Feiring of The Feiring Line, Shelley Lindgren of A16, Jane Lopes of Legend Australian Wine Imports, Antonela Manuli of Fattoria la Maliosa, Kevin McKenna of Louis Dressner Selections, Sean Norton of ¿Por qué no? Selections, Christopher Renfro of The 280 Project and Friend of a Friend, and Justin Trabue of Ward Four Wines.