Ferry Plaza Wine Merchant offers a series of educational and entertaining classes that are designed to make wine more accessible, less mysterious and more enjoyable. Join us by purchasing our classes in our Browse & Order section.

Our Core Classes Include:

Fundamentals of Wine & Food Pairing
Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed
Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed Intermediate

Our Specialty Classes Include:

Demystifying Champagne and Sparkling Wine
Introduction to Chocolate & Wine Pairing
Introduction to Wine & Cheese Pairing
Unveiling Pinot Noirs

EDUCATION CLASSES
Held in the Port Commission Hearing Room (upstairs in the Ferry Building). Prices and times vary.
Please inquire by contacting daniel@fpwm.com or 415.391.9400.

Class Schedule:

January 23		Austrian & German Wine Class, Terry Theise View Event Detail >
March 10		Cheese & Wine Pairing, Lassa Skinner & Debbie Zachareas
April 7		Book Signing, Gerald Hirigoyen, "Pinxtos, Small Plates in the Basque Tradition" as well as recipes from his book Food and Wine Pairing, Debbie Zachareas
May 5		Napa Valley Cabernet Intensive, Annie Favia and Andy Erickson
June 2		Hirsch Vineyards, David Hirsch's wines and labels

We are always adding new classes to our schedule,  so check back for updates.

Give a wine tasting class as a gift by purchasing directly from our site or through the purchase a gift card.  Ask one of our wine merchants for assistance with the wine tasting class gift card by calling 415.391.9400.

Need to plan a special event for your company? Want to weave an educational, interactive segment into your event for an interesting and fun experience? Contact Linda Kelley at 415.987.8953 or kelleydesigns@comcast.net

Our team of instructors includes:

• Peter Granoff, Master Sommelier
• Debbie Zachareas, world renowned sommelier
• Bo Thompson, wine and restaurant expert
• Jeff Prather, wine education specialist

Together, we have many years of experience teaching wine programs at consumer and professional levels, both in the US and internationally.

There will be two core classes repeated in our curriculum. We will rotate instructors as each of us brings a slightly different emphasis or perspective to the material.

Demystifying Champagne and Sparkling Wine

Champagne? CAVA? Prosecco? Crémant? Sparkling wine? These are all wines with bubbles, but have you ever wondered how they differ? And why is Champagne usually so much more expensive than its bubbly brethren? We are here to help, and although this class is timed perfectly for the holidays, part of our message is that good sparkling wine, in whatever form, isn' t just for celebrations. We love it as daily fare. Won' t you join us?

Fundamentals of Wine & Food Pairing

Should we adhere to the old rigid rules and drink only white with fish? Only red with meats? Or are these rules simply a gustatory straight jacket? Should we pair specific grape varieties with certain dishes or foods? Or is the whole idea of wine & food pairing just another ruse used by the wine police to keep consumers in a state of intimidation?

• This course is designed to pull back the covers on these questions and more about wine food pairing.
• Rather than address specific wines with specific recipes, we will look at how basic elements in wine and your meal reinforce, detract, ignore, or transform each other.

With the basic principles we illustrate, you will be able to further explore and relish the game of wine & food pairing every time you sit down to enjoy a meal. Understanding these dynamics is not an end point - it is the start of a delicious, life long journey.

Introduction to Chocolate & Wine Pairing

Many wine drinkers, when presented with the opportunity to pair chocolate with wine, fall back on conventional wisdom and reach for Cabernet Sauvignon. To be blunt, we kind of scratch our heads at that idea, and suspect that it started as a marketing notion somewhere in the wine world and took on a life of its own. So if Cabernet is "conventional" but not so "wise" with chocolate, then what does work? You might be surprised! We can think of no better partners for this decadent exploration of Chocolate & Wine than Michael and Jacky Recchiuti, owners and chocolate maestri at Recchiuti here in the Ferry Building.

Introduction to Wine & Cheese Pairing

Two of life’s greatest pleasures – fine wines and delicious, hand made cheeses. They always work together, right? Not so fast, folks. Since opening our new stores in Napa, Oxbow Wine Merchant and Oxbow Cheese Merchant, we are continually surprised and challenged by this wonderful game of pairing wines and cheeses in ways that put both on their best footing, and it is sometimes trickier than you might imagine. This gustatory excursion is taught by our Master Sommelier, Peter Granoff, and head cheesemonger of Oxbow Cheese Merchant, Lassa Skinner. Yum!

Unveiling Pinot Noirs

Pinot Noir. Sigh . . . Known in the wine world as the fickle one, the jealous mistress, the mercurial, the Holy Grail. Pinot is temperamental in the vineyard, and unpredictable in the winery, but when the resulting wine is good, it is among the wine world' s most purely hedonistic. This class will introduce Pinot Noir from the US, New Zealand and Burgundy. It should whet your appetite for further exploration of the grape and the regions where it thrives.

Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed

Does reading the voluminous and almost garish wine tasting notes written by the most influential wine critics leave you scratching your head? Or looking for a draft beer spigot to nuzzle up to when nobody is looking? We understand. Truth be told, it leaves us scratching our heads too! Our approach in this class is different.

• You will learn to identify acidity, alcohol, tannins, fruit, wood influence and general varietal characteristics in wine.
• We will address the unending challenge of describing wine, and help you better express your wishes in a retail or restaurant setting.
• You will learn to be a more discerning taster.
• You will leave class feeling more confident in your tasting abilities, and eager to share what you have learned with family and friends.

Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed Intermediate*

Your wish is our command – this is the class most requested by attendees of “Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed”!

Our “Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed” class, offered several times yearly, covers the all-important fundamentals; in this session we will take your tasting skills to the next level. You will leave this class with a better understanding of your own wine preferences, an enhanced ability to communicate them, and an improved grasp of the differences between wine grape varieties. Along the way, we will continue to address the unending challenge of describing wine, and to demystify the “winespeak” of critics and the wine press.

• Utilize isolated components of wine to illustrate acidity, alcohol, tannins, fruit, and wood influence, known in the industry as a “component tasting”;
• Discuss the flavor and texture characteristics of wines made from the best known grape varieties with carefully selected examples of each as reference points;
• Address the general flavor descriptors of “new world” versus “old world” wines.

Together, this class and the introductory session will set the stage for the Expert Level class where we will explore deductive tasting technique as taught by the Master Sommelier program, an analytical approach to “Blind Tasting.”

* Although it is not required, we recommend taking our “Wine Tasting Technique Deconstructed” class prior to the Intermediate class offered above.

For more information about our educational classes, please contact Daniel (D.C.) Looney at daniel@fpwm.com or call 415-288-0470 during business hours.