In March I was about to elope, but I had a very important conversation I needed to have before I went.  Adam (my wine angel), met me for a late lunch at Mac’s. He ordered Hess – support your peeps – and I ordered a beer (what?…well, sometimes I like a beer). Since we met in grad school at Wake Forest, Adam has patiently answered all my wine questions, poured at my wine club, connected me with people in Napa when I moved out there, and encouraged my hairbrained ideas (like this blog).  This time I want to learn about how to be a wine educator. His advice – first, get your CSW (more on that shortly). Second…you have to meet Sara, wine educator extraordinaire, incredibly sharp woman who’s paved her own path and established herself as a Sake expert. I said YESRIGHTNOWCANWEPLEASECALLHER?

Almost four months slip by in newlywed bliss (ahem, figuring out how all our stuff fits where only one of our stuff fit before, but otherwise yes, batting eyelashes and obnoxiously happy), and NOTHING happens on the wine front. I finally start researching the CSW…Certified Specialist in Wine…a very well respected (although less well known outside of wine professionals) certificate which means you know a WHOLE LOT about wine and are interested in sharing all that knowledge. I’ve been told “it’s really fucking hard” to get this certification, and “it will take you at least a year” and “you could be a Somm I or start with the WSET I or II first and get them right away with what you already know.”  But I wait…

So I sign up for a webinar to learn more about the exam…and I “meet” Jane. She’s the host and we don’t actually speak, but there is a chat box during the webinar and she answers my questions and calls me by name so I feel like we’ve met-ish. Jane is the most engaging webinar leader I’ve ever experienced.  My husband and I were listening to the 10 minutes leading up to the webinar starting: Jane asking warm up quiz questions, making us all feel like we’re there in her living room with her hubs and her dog…she was hilarious. AND I learned things.  For the next 80 minutes I listened, asked and answered questions, and decided that since SHE’s the one that wrote this test, I’ll take it. (And that’s after I got some of the questions wrong!)

Enter Sara.  Adam (wine angel) connects us, she graciously agrees to speak with me, and proceeds to completely impress me with her perception of what I could do with my current skills, what I might actually do as a next step in this process of the CSW, a breakdown of all the certifications and how to approach them, and a connection to several influential people!  In an hour! What? Girl crush growing faster than an ice cube melts in August – and feeling like, “yes, I can obviously do this, and I can do it tomorrow!” She has #allthecertificationsincludingaMasterofWINE and she wants to help me???? Yes. I better get on it.

And now I’ve done it. I’ve joined the Society of Wine Educators (SWE), I’ve ordered the exam and the study guide, and I’m waiting by the mailbox. With a glass of Cote Du Rhône…