Sommelier classes and tastings

Wine classes and guided tastings are showing up as a bigger part of the spring and summer drinks calendar, with Charleston sommelier Sarah O’Kelley scheduling a four-class Italian series at Wine & Company. (citypapertickets.com) O’Kelley’s “Grape to Table” series is set for May 9, June 13, July 18, and August 8 at Wine & Company, 441 Meeting Street in Charleston. Each 90-minute class includes four wines, a snack, and an information packet, and tickets are listed at $50, with a 50 percent discount for hospitality workers. (citypapertickets.com) The classes focus on four Italian regions — Piedmont, Tuscany, Sicily, and northeastern Italy — and the listing says they cover history, geography, geology, and culture alongside tasting. O’Kelley is a longtime Charleston restaurant and wine professional who co-opened The Glass Onion in 2008 and later shifted into wine full time. (citypapertickets.com) (charlestonmag.com) That local class series is landing alongside other education-first events that sell tasting as instruction, not just a night out. GuildSomm describes itself as a resource for wine professionals and enthusiasts, and its site centers study materials, seminars, podcasts, and wine-law updates. (guildsomm.com) One April 23 example is the National Capital Sommelier Guild’s Mediterranean tasting at the Vendange Institute in Ottawa. The two-hour event runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and promises wines from Spain, France, Italy, Croatia, and Lebanon, with grapes ranging from Assyrtiko to Zibibbo. (eventbrite.com) The grape list itself signals how these events are pitched. Assyrtiko is closely associated with Greece’s Santorini, while Zibibbo is the Italian name commonly used for Muscat of Alexandria, so the draw is discovery as much as drinking. (wine-searcher.com) (eventbrite.com) Another format is the low-price tasting flight. A social post promoted a $15 Thursday tasting on April 23 built around four pours and bites, a price point that puts the event closer to an entry class than a formal certification track. (x.com) At the larger-event end, the Westside Wine Trail’s “Cheers to Cheese” is scheduled for May 2 in West Kelowna, British Columbia, from noon to 4 p.m. Organizers say ticket buyers choose one of four routes, with either four winery stops serving two wines and two cheeses each or three stops serving three wines and three cheeses each. (eventbrite.ca) The common thread is structure: named grapes, mapped regions, guided pairings, and fixed pours. Whether the ticket is $15 or $50, the pitch is that wine knowledge can be packaged into a Thursday night tasting or a Saturday class. (citypapertickets.com) (eventbrite.com) (eventbrite.ca)