The Third E · A Guided Journey
Education: learning that never stops.
Every sommelier began by knowing nothing — and the learning never truly ends. Your guide to wine basics, winemaking, region deep-dives, and the journal that remembers for you.
Let me tell you the secret credential of every sommelier you have ever admired: we were all beginners, and the best of us still are. The palate is not a talent you are born with; it is a muscle you train, one deliberate sip at a time. The people we surveyed told us their greatest frustration with wine was simply not knowing enough — and their greatest wish was to learn. This page is our answer, and the door is propped wide open.
Wine basics — decoding the bottle wall
Every bottle is trying to tell you four things: what grape, what place, who made it, and when. Once you can read those four, the intimidating wall of labels becomes a menu of invitations. Our basics classes start at zero — how to hold the glass, what "dry" actually means, why some wines cost $15 and others $150 — and no question is too small. The only wrong question is the one you swallow.
Winemaking — how the magic is made
One of our tasters said it perfectly: understanding how the wine is made is key. Fermentation is farming's last act and the winemaker's first. In our winemaking classes you follow the grape from vine to crush to barrel to bottle — and learn how each decision along the way ends up on your tongue: why oak tastes of vanilla, why skins give red wine its grip, why patience is the most expensive ingredient in the cellar.
Region deep-dives — one place at a time
You cannot learn the whole world in an evening, but you can learn one corner of it well — and each corner you learn makes the next one easier. Our region-specific tastings take one place — Margaret River, Stellenbosch, the Sonoma Coast — and pour it into focus: the soil, the climate, the people, and five or six glasses that prove the point. Geography has never been this delicious.
Wine & writing — the journal remembers
Here is the humbling truth: you will forget tonight's wine by Thursday. That is why we treat writing as a wine skill. Our wine & writing classes help you find your own words — not the borrowed vocabulary of critics, but the phrases that mean something to you — and your LIV tasting journal keeps them. A year from now you will page back and discover the rarest bottle of all: proof of how far your palate has come.
