San Francisco Wine School

Learning wine is an experience indeed. They taught me which wine will go perfectly with which food, even though the initial taste said something else. An unique experience indeed.

I’ve taken several classes from the San Francisco wine school. The owner is absolutely brilliant and has the wealth of knowledge About wine that he is willing to share. The classes are some of the best hybrid classes I’ve ever taken. I’ve also attended a couple of their tasting events and they two are extremely informative As well as being super fun. I highly recommend. Taking classes from SFWS if you’re looking to get a certification, or just wanting to learn more about wine.

Fun Fact: * Humans that have been to space = 676 * Master Sommeliers in the world = 273 * Master Somm with Certified Wine Educator Credential = 12 David Glancy (MS, CWE) is one of only 12 in the world! David is also a certified French Wine Scholar, Italian Wine Professional, and Certified Specialist of Spirits. Simply amazing!

We did a private party with 130 members of our non-profit entrepreneurs group bringing in a speaker and doing a blindfolded dinner. David and his entire team were a pleasure to work with, thinking of every single little detail and being willing to be flexible and accommodate last minute changes as well as the fact we blindfolded everyone for the entire meal. The evening was magical - fantastic paired wines (the Riverbench Brut Rose was my personal favorite) and a great 4 course dinner. Every course was hit from the cheese nosh plate to the goat cheesecake with gingersnap crust. The A/V worked great and the room was beautiful. This is a really great venue if you are looking for private business dinners for groups of 60-90 people. I'd love to come back and take one of their wine classes too.

Amazing remote learning program! They offer WSET (Wine & Spirit Educational Trust) and SWE (Society of Wine Educators) programs online and in-person. As well as courses that are specialized and focus on the California wine industry and terroir. Located in San Francisco, California, I was lucky enough to have one of the school’s founders (David Glancey) as my instructor for not one but TWO of my courses! These classes are structured with care and great detail to prepare you for examination. I highly suggest you download your materials and follow the syllabus when working ahead. They work hard to fully prepare you for examination and certification. I find it valuable to mention they have scholarships available to interested Wine students from an enthusiast wanting to learn about wine in detail to the professional needing to freshen up in knowledge or add credentials to your resume. I loved their programs! My experience included a some road bumps with my health and the passing of a loved one. The team at San Francisco Wine School worked with me regarding studies, assignments, tastings and scheduling exams. Their care for me and my wine education during this time and remotely was above par. I plan on taking more coursework from them in the future, hopefully in person one day. FYI- Tanya and the Admin Team and 5/5⭐️ in everything they do! Thanks so much San Francisco Wine School 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾!

I applied for a scholarship with SF Wine School earlier this year, and was fortunate enough to receive one. I enrolled in the Somm Essentials course, along with Italian Wine Scholar (2 courses). Stellar instruction from Advanced Sommeliers (all pursuing MS) Thomas Renshaw, Mark Guillaudeu and Jienna Basaldu. The Somm Essentials course put me in position to pass Intro and Certified CMS on my 1st attempts. It provided excellent foundation & structure; you’ll know where to focus your studies. It will not gift wrap CS for you, but the Somm Essentials exam simulates the CS exam quite well at a notch lower degree of difficulty. David Glancy proctored the Somm Essentials exam—he gave valuable insight into the CMS roadmap. Italian Wine Scholar is taught by SF Wine School instructors, through the Wine Scholar Guild lens. Extra insight/commentary from Mark brought life into a course that’s quite dense. Of course, you get the option to taste wine with each course (and each class). Considering my experience has been entirely through remote learning (aside from examinations), I’m sure the in person classes will be the cherry on top of a fruitful and worthwhile experience.

I've taken a couple classes with SFWS now... A Chardonnay exploration and a Wines of Israel Tour. I love how SFWS was able to pivot with everyone sheltering in place and provide small bottles of wine, shipped across the country so participants can enjoy the wines alongside the presenters. The prices are reasonable given the instruction and the diversity and amount of wine provided, especially given all the work they are doing to ship and bottle these guys. It's no small task! There are so few companies able to provide such an array of wines without the commitment of a big bottle, and SFWS is one of them. Plus they have the expertise of David Glancy and network of experts that they call in for each of the high-quality classes. I've been impressed!

Excellence in Wine Knowledge! It's amazing to have the opportunity to learn for the best! David Glancy MS as not only the knowledge and incredible teaching skills, if not he is so generous too. I took 2 courses Provence, Languedoc - Roussillon and The Wine Program Management and I highly recommend both! Learn from the best, choose SFWS!

Thank you for the fascinating food & wine pairing class about how different foods and flavors like salt, pepper, lemon and chocolate pair with and change the flavors of different types of wines last night! I'm amazed by how much I learned! What a great time! Definitely would like to return for more classes with friends.

Amazing class on blind tasting - super entertaining and engaging the whole two hours of the class I took, definitely go here if you want to learn more while having fun!

The best school in the Bay Area to increase you knowledge. Many programs to choose from Highly recommended.

David is the best instructor I have ever seen. His knowledge of wine and wine-making is very deep and broad. Highly recommend the FWS session in this school.

David is especially gifted at helping students analyze and understand wines. I have attended many different tastings in the past, and David is one of the absolute best! I Better still, San Francisco Wine School's Zoom program is convenient and just as great as a live class. I have the wines shipped to me and either attend live by Zoom, or watch the recording at my convenience. I look forward to many more classes at San Francisco Wine School!

Anyone that knows me can tell you that I don't drink... ever. But today I expanded my knowledge on one the most popular global pastimes that is wine tasting. San Francisco Wine school, taught by Master Sommelier (Somm) David Glancy, was informative, fun, affordable, and to be honest - drinking wine with a one of 269 Master Somm's in the WORLD was pretty cool. What's more rare is that David also has a certification to teach wine. We tasted 3 whites and 3 reds. We learned what to look for, how to read labels, understand the history of wine on earth, how it's made, common adjectives, and so much more.. If you want a fun and educational experience with wine, give them a shout. Classes available online and in person.

Ok, these people are SERIOUS. If you're thinking of taking an 'a la carte' class just for "fun" you will feel very out of place amongst the super intense students who bring their own wine glasses to class, and are studying for their Somm degree. I have toyed with the idea of getting my sommelier certification someday, but after taking a class at the SF Wine School I realized I'm not quite ready for this level of academia. I mean, I love to geek out on wine, but 3-hours or powerpoint presentations and note-taking may just kill the joy for me. Then again, think of all the people I could impress when I recite the grape varietals grown in the Rias Baixas, or the permitted production methods for Madeira, or the percentage of wine exported from Portugal (all of which I promptly forgot after this class). Can totally understand how this is a great place to prep yourself for professional wine stuff - they offer lots of programs at various levels of intensity. And yes, you do get to drink (errr, taste) wine in each class. The professor who taught our Wines of Spain, Portugal and the Mediterranean class was definitely an encyclopedia of knowledge, but the tone of the class is more stuffy than fun. If you've seen the documentary Somm, you'll understand what kinds of characters take wine classes. Don't be fooled by their name "SF Wine School" and think you can hop on over for class after work in SOMA. The classes take place at the Embassy Suites Oyster Point in South SF, not easily accessible by BART. I suppose that's all the more reason to spit your wine, like the real pros do.

We did a private event here on a Saturday night. We had a little under 20 people, but there was definitely room for more. The school curated the wines and created the educational material, which was nice because then we basically didn't have to do any work. All we did was give them a budget and some preferences. David is one of 12 master sommeliers who also is a certified wine educator, and he was a great host. He is an engaging teacher with a sense of humor, and it was easy to pay attention and remember the stuff he was teaching us. We started out with champagne and bites (blini with caviar, goat cheese in phyllo, etc). They don't have retail, but if you really like something, they can help you order it. Next was the most interesting part, which lasted 3-4 hours - the Food and Wine lab in the classroom area. After a lecture, there was a buffet set up with 6 dishes. In front of each person were 6 glasses of very different wines. We were to try a bite of each food with a sip of each wine and take notes so that we could determine what flavors/profiles we liked best together (36 combinations). Then we all went over the responses together. I thought this was the most applicable, interesting, and educational part of the night. We then moved back into the other room for more food and 3 more wines. It's not a place I had considered for events before, but it's actually a great space, and David is an amazing resource. They regularly have classes like this and also other themed ones, as well as formal education programs. I personally loved doing it as a private party. It's a generous amount of wine (basically however much you can / want to drink; we had 11 different bottles available to us), so even though parking is pretty easy (street parking +/- meters), it may be better to take an uber / lyft / taxi so that you can enjoy all of the wine.

Went to an Italian wine dinner with a group of friends last week. The owner and staff were extremely kind and welcoming, yet we found the food to leave a lot to be desired. The facility does not have a full kitchen and food is cooked outside and brought in for serving, which has its inherent challenges. We believe if they continue to host these types of dinners more emphasis must be placed on the food and chef. Being half-Italian and growing up with some of these foods, I feel I have reasonable experience base to comment. The Braciole served was quite thin, dry and mushy. Almost meat-loaf in texture. Nothing like I've had before and not a winner among my friends. The only really great course was the dessert in which we all agreed. The wines themselves were just OK, nothing riveting. Sorry for the harsh review but if you want to charge $165 per person, it better stand up. We have all been to numerous paring dinners at some great establishments and unfortunately did not garner any enthusiasm for this place. The setting is lovely and I can't speak of the wine school, this review is based on a food and wine evening only. There is a lot of room for improvement in this area.

This program created by David Glancy is a must-do for any wine aficionado. Even if you are not looking forward to make a living out of this industry, you won't regret any second for being there. Super professional, great curriculum and a wonderful experience

I am currently enrolled in the San Francisco Wine School's California Wine Appellation Specialist program and it has been an amazing experience. Master Sommelier David Glancy and Maureen Downey are fantastic instructors and bring wine down to earth in a simple, straight-forward way. They make learning about wine fun while cramming loads of information into your brain. This class is suitable for people in the wine industry wishing to broaden their California wine knowledge or for the serious enthusiast. We taste 10ish quality wines in every class, some of the wines we have tasted either from the class or bottles that students have brought include a 1978 Hanzell Pinot Noir, 1985 Ridge Geyserville Zinfandel, 1998 Joseph Phelps Insignia, 2001 Ridge Monte Bello Cabernet Sauvignon and more. The wine you drink in class more than covers the cost of the program. All in all, the SFWS offers fun, informative classes taught by distinguished instructors (including 2 Master Sommeliers) at an amazing value. Highly recommended.

Taught by Master Sommeliers and MW candidates. Classes range from the introductory to in-depth - great for WSET and Advanced Sommelier candidates to strengthen tasting and knowledge! The French Wine Society classes are tough, but help pull together all the lost pieces of information on France. David Glancy is an amazing instructor, with an encyclopedic knowledge of wine regions and wine making, and very helpful in getting ready for tasting at of both WSET and Court of Master Sommeliers testing. i highly recommend!

I just completed the California Wine Appellation Specialist class. This is the second set of classes I have taken at The San Francisco Wine School. The instructors lead by Master Sommelier David Glancy our some of the best in the business. Whether you are a professional looking to go to that next level or a weekend hobbyist this is the school for you.

Just graduated from SF Wine School's California Wine Appellation Specialist certification. The 2 1/2 hour, 8-9 week course was much looked forward to each week. With David Glancy, MS, and Maureen Downey, MW candidate, as instructors, we learned from the Best, and there was never a slow moment. With the tasting of 9-12 wines per session to highlight the AVA's under review each evening brought the information presented into the glass. I am presently enrolled for the upcoming French Wine Scholar program, so this school and its instructors come highly recommended.

I have taken both the French Wine Scholar and the California Intensive classes. Master Sommelier David Glancy is the best wine educator ever! The other instructors are also really good. I leaned so much and really enjoyed the classes! These classes are great for someone starting their wine career, looking to improve their knowledge or just for fun!!