Sip, Laugh, Learn
Forget stuffy lectures and intimidating jargon.
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Learn about wine in an open, non-judgemental, inclusive learning environment -
Develop your taste to guide your own personalized wine exploration -
Change the way you choose wine for yourself and others -
Gain confidence in navigating wine shops and selecting bottles on wine lists -
Build your wine vocabulary to transform how you talk about wine -
Expand your skills to begin understanding why wines taste the way they do -
Progress at your own pace
LOOPERSOMM Wine Academy was made for:
Explore Our Wine Classes
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MEET SARAH
That moment of feeling small and embarrassed is one I've never forgotten, and one I promise you'll never experience with me.
One of my wine “a-ha” moments came at The Culinary Institute of America, where I confidently arrived thinking I knew so much about wine from my New York restaurant experience (insert hair flip and flashing smile!). Reality check: when put in charge of two cellars totaling 40,000 bottles, I quickly realized I knew next to nothing. To help me improve, my boss would send me home with bottles to taste and I would nervously prepare tasting notes, trying to figure out what I was tasting and how to express it, because I had to be ready to discuss them with her. She always ended our sessions with what I figured out was the most important question: "Was the wine delicious?"
Through this journey from uninformed novice to educated enthusiast, I learned that everyone starts somewhere, and that somewhere is often staring at a wine list or standing in a wine store feeling completely overwhelmed or nodding along in conversations while having absolutely no idea what people are talking about.
That's exactly why I created LOOPERSOMM Wine Academy—to give you the clarity and confidence I wish had had sooner.
With 18 years of wine teaching experience, my WSET Diploma, and as a Certified Wine Educator and Master Sommelier candidate, I've developed an approach that strips away pretension and focuses on what matters. Whether you're simply wine-curious or intimidated by the terminology, I promise you won't find any eye-rolling here. Because the most important lesson I've learned about wine isn't about prestige or technical perfection. It's answering one simple question that my mentor always emphasized: "Is it delicious to YOU?”