With everyone staying indoors because of COVID-19 we wanted to review what we consider some of the best online wine tasting resources. If you’re a wine-lover now is the perfect opportunity to brush up on your tasting skills. We’ve covered everything from Virtual Wine Tastings to online resources to jumpstart your wine knowledge.
Priority Wine Pass Virtual Tasting Experiences
Obviously we have to start by talking about our own offering. In response to COVID-19 closures, we launched our virtual wine tasting experiences. Get world class wines shipped directly from the wineries and set up a virtual tasting with the winemakers themselves. This gets you a great deal on these local wines and it helps support the struggling wine tasting industry. We’ve seen a lot of wineries doing this, but we’ve approached this in a much more personal way. Typically wineries offering virtual tastings will run a webinar on a set schedule. The winery does their thing and questions are taken at the end. What sets the Priority Wine Pass Virtual Wine Tastings apart is that they are private. You get to schedule one-on-one time directly with the owners or winemakers. We’re certain that it’s one of the best virtual wine tasting experiences available.
Masterclass with James Suckling
This is one of the most thorough online tasting courses available. He’ll walk you through viticulture, wine tasting, descriptors, storing and curating, food pairing and much more. Learn how to walk the walk and talk the talk. The course is an 11 lesson series all aimed at deepening your appreciation of wine. It also comes with a downloadable wine guide with lesson recaps and additional information. One great bonus that we love is the printable wine-guide that will let you conduct your own tastings at home. This course is available to take at your own pace and is viewable across all your devices including apple TV.
Wine in 9: The Complete Wine Tasting Course
This online wine tasting course is taught by Australian winemaker turned educator Mike Masey. He covers everything from the production process through tasting. In terms of value for your money this is an incredible deal since it’s currently on sale for under $11. The main focus of the course is on building confidence. Confidence not only for talking and tasting wine, but also for selecting the right wine in the first place. Learn how to take the anxiety of walking into a wine store and picking a bottle. At home learn how to pair that bottle with the perfect meal.
Wine Folly
So this isn’t a fancy course or video series. This is just a wonderful wine tasting website filled with great resources. If you’re just getting started we recommend checking out their Beginners Guide. Otherwise, make sure you set aside some time to browse their website. You’ll find that it’s chalk-full of useful articles and graphics. Additionally we love to recommend the Wine Folly Magnum Edition. It makes an amazing read and is the perfect coffee table item. Even intermediate to advanced wine-lovers can appreciate this book. Like their website, it breaks down everything to do with wine tasting into easy drinkable content.
Additional Online Wine Tasting Resources
- World of Wine: From Grape to Glass
- WSET Level 1 Award in Wines Online
- Wine Spectator School (Free for wine spectator subscribers)
