The complete study of the grape.
A serious, somm-grade course in wine, with on-ramps gentle enough for a first bottle. Thirty lessons from the vine to the table, an atlas of over 170 grapes and 85 regions, the classifications, a deductive blind-tasting grid, an interactive aroma wheel, a food-pairing engine, and the working math of service and the cellar.
Where to begin.
Thirty lessons, vine to glass.
Who shaped the world of wine.
Eight thousand years in the glass.
Wine by the numbers.
Ideas worth swirling on.
Common questions, straight answers.
The great styles, side by side.
Wine knowledge at work.
Things that are not true.
Learn wine, properly.
Start anywhere. Each lesson stands alone, reads in about twelve to fifteen minutes, and can be read aloud. Tap a card to open it.
The things you actually do.
How to taste, open, decant, store, and serve. The practical craft that turns knowledge into a good bottle on the table. Tap any to expand.
Ideas the whole subject rests on.
The math of the table.
Train your palate.
Three working tools. Walk a wine through a deductive blind-tasting grid, explore the aroma wheel to learn what each scent reveals, and run the food-pairing engine in either direction.
A guided walk through the deductive method sommeliers use. Note what you see, smell, and taste, set the structural sliders, and the grid reasons toward a likely grape, climate, age, and origin. There are no wrong answers here, only a trained way of looking.
Click a wedge to drill from a broad family into specific descriptors, and learn what each scent tends to signal about a wine, from grape and climate to oak and age. The vocabulary of the nose, made navigable.
Pick a dish to find wines, or a wine to find dishes. Every match comes with the reason, drawn from the real rules of pairing: acid cuts fat, tannin meets protein, sweet beats heat, and the weights must match.
See wine, visually.
Nine interactive instruments for the curious eye. Chart a grape's structure, read the spectrum of color, trace a wine from vine to glass, plan a cellar on a living timeline, map every pairing, scan the vintages, and master the names, the bottles, and the drinks.
Every grape has a structural fingerprint: acidity, tannin, body, sweetness, and alcohol. Pick two and watch their shapes overlay. This is how a somm holds a variety in the mind before a single sip.
Color is the first deduction. Whites deepen with age; reds fade. Click any shade to learn the grape, climate, and age it tends to signal.
Trace the journey a grape takes to become the wine in your glass. Tap any stage to open it.
Add the bottles you own or covet, set a vintage, and see when each enters and exits its window on one timeline. Saved in your browser only. Nothing leaves this page.
A heatmap of what works. Brighter cells are stronger matches. Click any cell for the reason behind the pairing.
A quick read on how the vintages line up across the great regions. A guide to style and ageability, not a substitute for a current chart.
Confidence at the table is half the battle. Search any grape or region for a plain-English pronunciation.
A canon worth recognizing, from first growths to humble icons. Not a shopping list; a cultural map.
Wine is also a base. A handful of classic wine drinks, built simply, for when the occasion calls for more than a pour.
Soil rarely adds flavor directly; it shapes water, heat, and vine stress. These are the famous wine soils and the styles they help create.
Bottle size affects how a wine ages: larger formats age more slowly and gracefully. The classic sizes and what they hold.
A working vocabulary for describing wine, grouped by what it measures. Learn these and your notes (and your confidence) sharpen fast.
Train for the exam, and the floor.
A production-grade prep suite built around the two great frameworks: the Court of Master Sommeliers Deductive Tasting Method and the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting. Theory, structured tasting, service, and mastery tracking, for candidates and dining-room teams alike.
The two great routes.
The tasting methods, written out.
Work a wine through a full structured grid, then generate a written conclusion you can copy and send to an instructor. Switch between the CMS Deductive and WSET SAT formats.
Spaced-repetition flashcards. Cards you miss return sooner; cards you know space out. Progress saves in your browser. Built on the proven SM-2 algorithm.
Timed, scored mock theory exams modeled on certification formats, with a pass line and a breakdown of your weakest topics.
The dining-room craft: the steps of service, the rituals, and the language for guiding guests and selling with grace. Tap a checklist to work through it.
Condensed, high-yield reference for the night before. The facts that exams and guests test most. Tap any sheet to expand.
Your readiness at a glance, tracked locally as you study. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Test what you know.
Over 400 questions across every topic, exam-style, with an explanation after each answer. Pick a focused set or take the mixed challenge.
Mixed sets.
Focus on one area.
The reference library.
Over a hundred and seventy grape varieties and more than eighty regions. The classification systems and the great growths. A vintage character guide, the major wine styles, and a catalogue of faults.
| Grape | Heartland | Structure | Signature aromas |
|---|
A working reference. Profiles describe the grape's classic expression; site, climate, and winemaking shift every wine. Filter by color above.
Famous classified estates.
A guide to the character of recent vintages by region. Vintage matters most where weather varies year to year. For specific scores, always consult a current vintage chart.
| Region | Window | Character |
|---|
| Style | Built from | Hallmarks |
|---|
The common faults and flaws, how to spot them, and what causes them. Knowing these is half of confident tasting. Tap any to expand.
Run the numbers.
Seven working calculators for service and the cellar. Everything runs in your browser. Nothing is stored or sent anywhere.