Meet WSA Alum, Brooke Parker

WSA Grad: Brooke Parker
WSET Intermediate Certificate Spring, 2011
Position: Tasting Room Associate, Dobbes Family Estate

While working full-time in the IT industry, Brooke was looking for a way to deepen her knowledge of wine. After testing the waters with a couple of WSA classes, Brooke signed up for the WSET Intermediate Certificate course in the Spring of 2011. The knowledge she gained there, along with the tremendous enthusiasm it fostered, helped her land a seasonal job in the tasting room at Dobbes Family Estate in Dundee. The preparation she received in the IC course allowed her to "hit the ground running." While Brooke is not quite ready to leave her IT job, she plans to use her new-found knowledge to "help change the wine world, one person at a time, and to focus on the fun, beauty, and deliciousness that is the real reason we pop the cork!"

Help Wanted!

As you may have guessed if you’ve seen me lately, Adam and I are getting ready for the arrival of our second baby sometime around January 1^st (no tax jokes please!). In order to ensure that the WSA continues to tick along with fabulous programming and events even in the months immediately following his arrival, I’m looking for some additional help around here! If you’re interested in getting more involved with the WSA in exchange for wine education, please get in touch! The positions listed below are a rough outline of the type of help that could come in handy, but if you have other skills you think might be useful, let me know. These positions are flexible and can be tailored to your schedule, but ideally I’m looking for a commitment of a couple of hours per week over a 2-month period.

Position 1: Course Assistant Course assistants help with classroom set up, wine pouring (servers permit required) and clean up in exchange for reduced tuition for certification classes and free tuition for recreational classes. If you’re applying for this position, please note for which classes you’d like to be considered. Position 2: Programming Intern The programming intern will have the opportunity to develop and implement educational programming. The ideal candidate for this position brings some event planning experience as well as ideas for unique wine-related events (possible events include: advanced level wine seminars, lecture series, wine career symposium, etc.). Please note that this is NOT a teaching position. Position 3: Marketing and Visual Education Intern (for lack of a better term) Ideally, the MVE intern is visually minded with strong graphic design skills. This individual will create and install interactive visual displays at the WSA to increase casual learning opportunities at the school (this might include maps, soil samples, regional displays, etc.). HOW TO APPLY: Send an email inquiry to cheers@wineandspiritarchive.com. Please include in our email: 1). why you are interested in the position and how you will use your education credits, and 2). the skills you bring to the position and any past relevant jobs/experiences. Review of applicants will begin November 1, 2011.

Meet WSA Alum, Deb Stilwell

WSA Grad: Deborah Stilwell
WSET Intermediate Certificate, 2007 and Advanced Certificate, Summer 2008
Position: Weekend Lead and Wine Educator, DeLille Cellars Carriage House

It was a lack of basic information and training available at previous winery jobs that led Deb Stilwell to seek out the WSET program. Deb began her studies for the Intermediate Certificate program independently and exclaims, “It was the first time in my life I came across a subject where I realized how much there was to know and that I had SO much to learn. I didn't find this depressing but rather, exciting.” After sitting the IC exam with the WSA in Portland, she dove right into the Advanced Certificate program in a Seattle class. Deb now conducts wine education classes both in her position as the Weekend Lead and Wine Educator at DeLille Cellars in Woodinville, WA, and while conducting staff training for the new Wines of Washington tasting room in Snohomish, WA. She has also taught a Wine Basics class at the Seattle branch of Le Cordon Bleu and plans to continue teaching there. Deb is a real testament to the power of a WSET education!

Meet WSA Alum, David Rosenthal

This is the first post in a regular series profiling WSA alums. Allow us to introduce you to . . .

David Rosenthal
WSET Advanced Certificate, Spring 2008
Position: Assistant Winemaker, Chateau Ste. Michelle

David Rosenthal began his wine career as a laboratory technician. As his passion for wine grew, he realized he needed to develop his palate and broaden his understanding of the world of wine. That led him to the WSA and the WSET Advanced Certificate program. David says that the WSET program is “dynamic, thorough, and well respected,” and that the knowledge he gained has helped him define his approach to making wine. In his current position as Assistant Winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle, David uses what he learned through WSET to make decisions about fermentation, blending, and overall wine style. David adds, “I am grateful to the WSA for helping to advance my career and for making wine education fun and interesting.”

WSET Alumni Parties - Portland and Seattle

OK WSET Alums, it's time again to drink some wine, eat some food, see old friends and meet some new ones. We sincerely hope you'll join us for one or both of these events!

Portland Alumni Party
Wednesday, July 7, 6pm
The Wine & Spirit Archive, 828 SE Ash Street #204

Seattle Alumni Party
Sunday, August 8, 5pm
DeLille Cellars, Woodinville, WA

Don't forget to RSVP!

Become a WSA Member!

If you're a frequent wine-buyer or class-taker, you can't afford to NOT become a WSA Member. Join the club and receive invitations to member-only events and great deals on wine, tastings, and classes.

Annual membership is just $30 - so once you've attended your free Friday Night Tasting and purchased a few bottles of wine, you're already in the black. For our WSET alums, the math is even easier (see below for details)!

Membership includes:

WINE DISCOUNTS - 10% off ALL wine purchases. 15% off case purchases (including mixed cases and special orders).

TASTING/CLASS DISCOUNTS - 10% off classes, tastings and events (excludes WSET Certification Courses).

COMPLIMENTARY TASTINGS - Free admission to a Friday Night Tasting of your choice. WSET Intermediate Alums receive an additional "+1." WSET Advanced Alums receive an additional "+2" OR - in lieu of the tasting - free admission to a recreational class of their choice (space permitting - we reserve 3 "free" spots per session).

SPECIAL EVENTS - Admission to member-only events (minimum of 2 per year).

PRIORITY ACCESS - Early registration access for all classes and events.

SWAG - Your very own WSA Spit Cup!

WSA Students and Alums Visit Trisaetum and Anne Amie

As part of our most recent WSET Advanced Course, we took our students - as well as a few alums - down to the Willamette Valley to tour the vineyards and wineries of Trisaetum and Anne Amie Vineyards.

At Trisaetum - a new winery located in the Ribbon Ridge AVA - we toured the winery's newly constructed, state of the art facility. The winery's top flight technologies included an air filtration system developed by Nasa and what - by the end of our visit - we came to know as the "bug-sucking-machine": a grape processor that uses a vacuum to remove all leaves, dirt, bugs, water, and other debris from the grapes. This "cleaning" process, followed by a double hand-sorting of the fruit is thought to be an important contributor to the ultimate quality of Trisaetum wines. We were all certainly sold on the 2007 off-dry Riesling we were served upon arriving at the winery . . . A huge thank you to Greg, Alice and Courtney for the tour and tasting they arranged for us!

With a little time to kill, WSA student Jeremy Saxton arranged a quick stop for us at one of his favorite wineries - Lenné Estate, where we sampled some beautiful Pinot Noirs. Thank you to Lenné for accommodating us on such short notice!

Next, we headed to Anne Amie Vineyards where WSA Alum Ksandek Podbielski showed us the vineyards, pointing out several AVAs visible from Anne Amie's beautiful back patio as well as the winery's new vegetable garden. Thomas, Anne Amie's winemaker, then took us into the cellar where he explained the flow of fruit through the facility and his own philosophy on winemaking. The visit ended with several comparative tastings. In the first, we tasted the difference between two bottlings of the same wine - one under screw cap and another under cork. Both were beautiful, but we all agreed that the wine under cork was showing it's age much more quickly, while the screw capped wine tasted much younger. Next - as part of Thomas' discussion on how he creates his bottlings - we compared two different blends. Each blend was made from the same three barrels, but with a different ratio of wine taken from each cask. Given that the two blends contained the same three wines, the differences between the two were quite distinct and offered great insight into the blending process. Thank you to Thomas, Ksandek and Katie for making this such a wonderful stop!

WSA Alumni Party

On Saturday, April 4 we celebrated our second annual WSA Alumni Party - this time at Anne Amie Vineyards. It was a great chance to catch up with past students and to introduce students from different classes to one another. It didn't hurt that the weather was sunny, warm and near perfect, allowing us to open up the doors to Anne Amie for a gorgeous view of the valley and several different AVAs.

Each alum brought a "secret" bottle of wine, wrapped or decanted, and we spent the evening trying to guess what was in each bottle. The wines were a tasty, interesting and sometimes weird mix, hailing from Franken to the Finger Lakes and everywhere in between. Some delicious bottles were even made by students.

A huge thank you to everyone who participated. See you next year!

WSA Alumni on the Move

Congratulations to WSA alums who have either been recently promoted or have moved on to bigger and better things. 

Down in wine country, you'll find WSET Advanced Graduates Morgan Ennis and Mich Nelson in new tasting room positions.  Morgan recently left her position at Cork - A Bottle Shop to become Tasting Room Manager at Daedalus Cellars and Mich recently left Stoller Vineyards to join the Erath Winery team as Guest Services Supervisor.  Mich reports that her new position is "the perfect fit."

Further south in the Eugene area, WSET Advanced Graduate Lorne Mews is still at Benton-Lane Winery but has been promoted from National Sales Manager to Vice President. Congratulations Lorne!

For those of you still dining out in this depressed economy (and for the sake of our restaurant-based alums, we urge you to!), visit WSET Advanced student Lisa Marcus at Le Pigeon and WSET Advanced Graduate Amy Rehagen at Toro Bravo.  An easy assignment given that these are two of our favorite Portland restaurants.

Braiden Rex-Johnson, WSET Intermediate student also has news.  In addition to her other writing projects, Braiden is now a regular contributor to the Seattle Times Pacific Northwest "Taste" Column and is a monthly contributor to Amazon.com's Al Dente Blog.  And WSET Intermediate Graduate Laura Brady, president of Lux Wines, just announced a new wine sales website, including a bridal registry.  Check out Laura's new site here.

Want to know more about what WSA grads are up to?  Visit our graduates page.  

2nd Annual Alumni Party - Saturday, April 4

We love to keep track of our alums and catch up on what they're up to and - with well over 100 WSET graduates - our annual WSA alumni party is always the easiest way to that.  If you're an alum or current student, we sincerely hope you'll join us Saturday, April 4, at 4:30p.m. down in Carlton, OR.  

A huge thank you to alums Ksandek Podbielski and Kim McLeod for offering space out at their beautiful Anne Amie winery for the party!

More details including pre-party winery/vineyard visits and after-party dinners will be circulated soon.  In the meantime, get this event on your calendar!

Croatian Wine Professionals Visit The Wine and Spirit Archive

This summer we again worked with the USDA Cochran Fellowship Program to host a group of international wine professionals and introduce them to American wines and winemaking practices.  This year's crew included three Croatian wine professionals: a wine-interested botanist and two government employees responsible for evaluating and ensuring wine quality.

I kicked off our two day program with a class on American wine history, grape varieties, and winemaking.  The class included a tasting of typical American wines.  Zinfandel, which originated in Croatia and is thought to be a descendent of the Croatian grape Crljenak Kastelansnki, of course made an appearance (in its red form, not it's more popular "white" version).  Surprising to me, the Oregon Pinot Noir I poured (one which I personally think is fabulous) was probably the least popular wine of the day.  The fellows found the alcohol to be too high for the wine's relatively light body (I tried not to hold it against them).  

I turned the afternoon over to Peter Bos, Northwest Wine Academy's winemaker and instructor.   Peter led us through some fabulous tastings, my favorite of which was a comparison of a single wine: one sample unfiltered and two samples sent through two different filters (the differences in flavor and texture were astounding).  Peter also poured a Washington wine (which shall remain nameless) that had been picked too late: the fruit tasted burnt and the alcohol high enough to appeared fortified.  Demonstrating the process of "water backing," Peter had us add water (equal to 10% of the wine's volume) to the glass.  The wine still tasted of scorched fruit, but the balance was significantly improved.  

On our second day, we headed across the lake to Woodinville to tour a few of the area's wineries and taste some wine.  At Ste. Michelle, enologist and WSA alum David Rosenthal toured us through the winery's massive facility and walked us through a tasting of Ste. Michelle wines.  For someone like myself used to visiting small Northwest operations, the tour was a fascinating contrast in scale.  Ste. Michelle's Compliance Specialist, Zib Marshall, then met with us to discuss the government regulations that control how wine is made, sold and distributed.  Here, the differences between American wine regulations and Croatian wine regulations became clear, with American regs more focused on how wine is sold and labeled and Croatian regulations more strictly controlling wine quality and how wine is produced.  And finally, we wrapped up our day with Linda Conklin, Columbia Winery's hospitality manager and current WSA student, for a tasting and discussion of Woodinville's winemaking history.    

A big thank you to those who helped create this program with us, particularly our alums David and Linda!

WSA Alumni on the Move

A quick congratulations to several WSA alums who recently stepped into new positions:

After several years at Soter Vineyards, Chris Poulos (AC 2007) was asked by North Berkeley Imports to come aboard as a sales representative covering the Pacific Northwest, midwest, and parts Northern California.  A huge territory to be sure, which means that Chris finds himself traveling quite a bit.  Chris says he loves the exposure to North Berkeley's stellar collection and the opportunity to introduce buyers to new wines.  Chris is also currently working towards his WSET Diploma in Wines and Spirits (DWS).  Good luck, Chris!

Current student Linda Conklin was recently promoted to Hospitality Manager at Columbia Winery.  In her new position, Linda coordinates all VIP visits and is also responsible for the winery's tasting room education program.  Linda says she the new position keeps her busy and requires significant traveling, but that she is enjoying the new challenges.  

Ryan Wilson (AC 2007) recently made a move from Bacchus Fine Wines to Mitchell Wines.  Although it's a challenge to work with an entirely new book, Ryan is excited by Mitchell's great selection and is relishing the chance to learn an entirely new selection of wines (plus he gets to work with WSA instructor Ewald Moseler, so that's got to be a plus as well!). 

And finally, on a recent trip to New Seasons, I was excited to see Kerry Godfrey (IC 2007) stocking wine bottles in his new position as Wine Manager.  Kerry says he's found the perfect job and loves spending his days helping customers select wine (although his body has not quite adapted to all the heavy lifting!).  The next time you're in the inner SE, stop in and see Kerry at the five corners New Seasons and put him to work!

Alright alums, keep us posted.  We want to know what you're up to and where you're working.  And for those of you who want to find out more about what our alums are up to, make sure to visit our graduates page.  

WSA Alumni Launch Tasting Group

by Leo Daedalus

The no. 2 pencil dust hasn't even settled on our final exams, but the WSA spring '08 Advanced alumni have already revived their study group. After all that hard work, "I don't want to lose my momentum," explained Barnyard Action co-founder Bob Martin. The group takes its ignoble name from a late-night tasting note tossed off during the initial meeting.

It all began in the midst of the Advanced course, when several of us observed that while we were getting good at pulling out distinct aromas or flavors, we were often at a loss to put a name to them. We needed more experience making the connection between the contents of the glass and the contents of our memory.

Accordingly my wife, Anna, and I invited our classmates over for dinner. About half a dozen took the bait, each bringing a wine from a region we had previously studied. We arrayed the table with a generous smorgasbord of scent and taste referents: cherries, currant preserves, pears, hazelnuts, licorice, spices, chocolate, gooseberries, green peppers, and many other usual suspects. We even had a bowl of dirt and a leather bag.

As we went through our joint tasting, we compared our impressions of the wines with the spread before us. The process was not always conclusive — we were all certain we had found pear in one pour, but it bore no resemblance to the halved bartlett we were passing around on a saucer. Clearly we needed a table ten times bigger. Better yet, an entire grocery store.

Nevertheless, we learned a great deal. Those in our group who had never had black currants, for example, enjoyed a genuine Aha! moment when we got to the St-Emilion and passed the cassis preserves around. And no one could deny, when Anna found green olives in the Viognier, that the actual picholines corroborated the association.

More valuable even than the smorgasbord of food referents, however, was the simple experience of joint blind tasting and group discussion. Clearly, nothing would hone our skills better than regular tastings together, particularly given the common language we share in the systematic WSET tasting method. Thus was Barnyard Action reborn as an ongoing group.

The first post-class gathering was held at Bob and Krissy Martin's home, with an Italian theme. Seven of us convened, each bringing a secret Italian wine. These were bagged for blindness and numbered according to a basic ordering system, to ensure that we would not be following, say, a Ripasso with a Verdicchio. Additionally, we handed out tasting note sheets based on the WSET forms to keep us on track as the evening progressed.

We're committed to keeping Barnyard Action from devolving into just a fun social gathering. It's important that it continues as a rigorous program of joint learning. We're doing this because we love wines, and because the more we learn, the more we find we don't know. What might be a daunting project for an individual is a great voyage of shared discovery among a group of dedicated enthusiasts. And, of course, tremendous fun.

For more information, or to get in touch about participating, visit the Barnyard Action blog at barnyardaction.blogspot.com.

WSA Hosts 1st Annual WSET Alumni Party

In celebration of graduating our 100th WSET student, in early February we filled our house with Oregon-based WSA alumni for our first ever alumni party. The party was a great opportunity to connect students from various classes and to catch up with students we haven’t heard from in awhile. We found out that Mich Nelson just started a new job at Stoller Vineyards, that Chris Poulos has already enrolled in the Diploma Course, and that Jeffrey Lee is headed to New Mexico to make goat cheese.

Wine was – of course – not in short supply and after starting the evening with Champagne cocktails we quickly went on to sample the many wonderful wines brought by our alums. Thanks to everyone who brought wine to share. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Intermediate Certificate Student, Leo Daedalus, scores perfect 100 on IC Exam

Congratulations to Leo Daedalus who received a perfect 100 on his WSET Intermediate Certificate exam. Leo's perfect score is the first for the WSA and is a tremendous achievement.