Wine Hospitality courses look to serve workforce demand

Wine Hospitality is now at Delta College. 

The Culinary Arts program launched two new Wine Hospitality programs, Evaluation of Wine (CUL ARTS 32) and Wine Regions of California (CUL ARTS 85) taught by wine expert Fred Swan. 

Both courses require students to be 21, but no experience is required. 

There are currently 10 students in the Evaluation of Wine class and 13 students in the Wine Regions of California class, both of which started March 20 and March 21, said Delta College Director of Marketing and Communications Alex Brietler.

Evaluation of Wine runs Tuesdays from  6 p.m. 8:50 p.m.  in Danner 106 and Wine Regions of California runs  Mondays from 6 p.m.. to 8:50 p.m., also in Danner 106. 

The courses are meant to be beneficial for students hoping to work or already working in the wine industry.

“The California class is beneficial to current or prospective winery employees, because it teaches them all about the history of wine in California, every winegrowing region in California, and typical wine varieties and styles,” Swan said in an email interview. 

“The Sensory Evaluation class is beneficial because it helps students improve their skills from tasting, evaluating, and describing wine.”

Swan noted that the lessons and learnings of the class would be helpful to “winery employees whether they work in production or in customer-facing roles.”

Swan brings notable experience to his work at Delta.

“I have worked in the wine industry for 15 years. I consult for some wineries but have never been a day-to-day employee at one. Most of my work is as an educator, wine writer, and sommelier,” said Swan. “I’ve also found the industry to be full of great, interesting, and extremely intelligent people. And of course, the wine itself is nice.” 

He’s is a founder of Wine Writers Educational Tours which allows professional wine writers to work together and in 2012 he obtained Certified Specialist of Wine from the Society of Wine Educators which requires you to take an exam of 100 multiple choice in which you must score a 75 percent or higher with a time limit of one hour.

The Central Valley is California’s largest wine region stretching 300 miles from Sacramento to San Joaquin Valley. The Central Valley region produces about 75 percent of all California’s wine grapes. Lodi and the Sierra Foothills are very popular wine regions, according to Gold Medal Wine Club which is located in Santa Barbara, California.