After a very successful inaugural Level 2 Advanced Specialist of Texas Wine class earlier this year, The Texas Wine School has scheduled a second session for this advanced class in October. This is the opportunity for Level 1 Specialist of Texas Wine to elevate their certification level to advanced and wear your gold pin.
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“This advanced course with the certification authority from the accreditation of the Texas Wine School will enable you to enhance your Texas wine enjoyment, knowledge and historical insights with a real wine school certification. Nothing to sell you except wine classes, certification and a more fulfilling tasting experience from ‘The Man who Wrote the Book on Texas wine’ … and I wrote both of them.” – Doc Russ Kane
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Dr. Russ Kane, course creator and lecturer for The Texas Wine School, says,“We’ve had a phenomenal response to my first Level 2 Advanced Specialist of Texas Wine Course offering and held live via Zoom this past April. Level 1 STW graduates came calling. This first advanced Level 2 class was sold out in less than a month. Our plans now include a second advanced class to be held on four sequential Wednesday evenings from 6:30 to 9:30p CT starting October 13 through November 8 with the 1.5 hour exam the following Thursday (November 9) with all held live via Zoom.
Click here for more course information and registration at the Texas Wine School.
Level 2 Advanced Texas Wine Certification
As will the Level 1 STW classes, Specialist of Texas Wine Level 2 Advanced Courses provided both lectures and the exam live via Zoom. Six to eight Level 2 wines will be provided to advanced students by the Texas Wine School. Students have found the STW Zoom format for presentation, Q&A, and testing allows then to increase their knowledge and become advanced certified specialist from the relaxed comfort of their home – anywhere in Texas or the United States. Click here for more information and registration.
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Your Instructor
Your instructor, who is also the course developer, is Dr. Russ Kane, who is the longest tenured Texas wine writer and has followed the evolution of the modern Texas wine industry and spent time researching its founding moments going back 350 years. He is also an award-winning Texas writer, author, Vintage Texas blogger, and knowledgeable and internationally traveled wine enthusiast.
Dr. Kane has also served on the board of the Texas Wine and Grape Growers Association and honored with their Wine Media Award in in 2009 and 2013, served on the board and as Executive Director of The Wine Society of Texas, judged in many international wine competitions, and was a member of the Texas Department of Agriculture’s Wine Industry Development Advisory Committee.
Level 2 Advanced STW Course Content
Paid students attending the course will receive a copy of a primer titled “Starting a Vineyard in Texas” by Dr. Kane’s friend and wine industry associate, Jim Kamas, a Texas TAMU Agrilife Viticulture Specialist with both B.S. and M.S. in Horticulture with extensive experience in grape and fruit growing in Texas.
This course includes multiple learning units held over four 3-hour class and tasting sessions. As a Level 2 Advanced STW student, you will experience:
- The details of T.V. Munson’s role in saving the European vineyards from the scourge of Phylloxera and his Texas native grape legacy that permeates rootstock selections worldwide to this day and new approaches in using vinifera-native hybrids to remedy other vineyard diseases like Pierce’s disease.
- A “deeper dive” into Texas’s soils, climatic conditions (temperatures, typical weather events, precipitation, and potential effects of global warming), and remaining wine industry challenges including herbicides.
- A penetrating look at the issues that differentiate warm growing regions like Texas from cooler growing regions, and the art of how blending is used to optimize wines in warm climates like Texas and around the world.
- A focus on starting a vineyard in Texas and considerations for opening and operating a Texas winery.
- An archive of one-on-one “unfiltered-unfined” videos with Texas growers, winemakers and winery owners discussing many of the topics that area presented in this course.
- Students will have access to over 180 course slides and a bibliography of over 100 references and resource documents used in the development of this course.
Wine Tasting, Blend Exercise, and Final Exam
The advanced course also includes tasting of selected Texas wines and a blending exercise in which students plan, taste, blend, and evaluate their wine blend creations. This exercise will be carried out partly in class and partly as homework with a written blending sheet submitted to the instructor. The blending exercise will be graded and compose 20% of each student’s final grade. The balance of the grade will be determined by a comprehensive certification examination of over 50 multiple choice and fill-in-the -blank questions. A combined 80% score is required to attain STW Level 2 advanced certification to receive a lapel Gold Pin.
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Further details and registration can be found on the Texas Wine School website (click here).
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