teaching wine classes

help! is there an absolutly basic intro to wine book anywhere? i may need to develope a really basic course for a continuing education program. it might only be one or two sessions with the basics of fermentation, species and varieties, regions, styles, flaws - just basic stuff in these regards. other courses would fill out details for specific topics. i sure don't want to write all this myself - there must already be something. help!

Try http://www.virtualwineknow.com/2010/10/netletter.html?did=primer

David, can you receive a fax? If so I will check when I get home if I still have the handouts from the wine appreciation coures I took about 20 years ago. It's a 50/50 chance but if I have them still I know exactly where they would be. For what you describe you only need to first few classes before we started getting into more detail on regions and grapes.

thanks bill - i like the organization in the outline at the right. of course the first couple of sections contain some pretty egregious errors; but i can do my own explanations. not sure i want to send students to this site; but as i say, i like the organization. this will probably be very useful.

brian; i can't easily recieve a fax; and i assume you don't have them as documents that could be emailed. thanks for trying. howie has also volunteered some stuff.

Michael Schuster's 'Essential Winetasting' is a very useful book that would fit nicely into a 'lesson' format, perhaps with personal additions that you could add as you see fit.

You might want to try the Society of Wine Educators (www.societyofwineeducators.org) . They can provide a lot of info as well as local instructors. I am a member and they have a lot of qualified dedicated instructors looking for work.

Michael Schuster's 'Essential Winetasting' is a very useful book that would fit nicely into a 'lesson' format, perhaps with personal additions that you could add as you see fit.

Agreed.

Or how about the WSET Intermediate Certificate Course Textbook - 'Wines & Spirits, Looking Behind the Label'. I cannot speak personally for the quality of this book, and had several issues with the advanced level book I used, but maybe the course participants might like the idea that it is a textbook for a course that leads to a qualification.

What about Kevin Zraly's Complete Wine Course?