Ep 038: Alphabet Soup…The Business of Wine Certifications

This week we go inside the wine industry again! We start with some amazing shout outs from iTunes, Twitter, and Facebook. Thanks for all the positive feedback! Then we tackle a robust listener question that pulls the curtain back on the wine industry. Elizabeth shares firsthand information about big conglomerates’ wines that she learned while working for one of these companies! We address the quality, the marketing, & how to figure out what they own. Then we cover the certifications that people in the wine industry love to tout, what they really mean, and our take on the pyramid schemes of these certification groups: The certifications that Pliny the Elder, Ausonius, Thomas Jefferson, and other wine experts throughout history earned/certifications’ place in wine history. The wine-service-oriented Court of Master Sommeliers and the different levels they offer The Society of Wine Educators and the Certified Specialist of Wine and Certified Wine Educator The Wine and Spi [...]