Odyssey Wine Academy now offering wine education in Spanish

Julie Rothberg never imagined she’d one day launch a wine education school. Or, that she’d break down local barriers by offering wine classes in Spanish.

As the president of Medlock Ames winery in Healdsburg and as the mother of twin girls, she had little time to spare.

But once she discovered there were no wine education classes offered through the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in Sonoma County, Rothberg knew things had to change.

The WSET

Headquartered in London, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust is one of the most highly regarded wine education programs in the world.

Students attend to achieve certification in as many as four levels of wine education, which increase in depth and complexity.

Rothberg, who earned her top Level 4 diploma from the trust in 2014, believed the program could help Medlock Ames’ hospitality team broaden its wine knowledge. But with no in-person WSET training in Sonoma County, she was unsure what to do.

At the diploma level, Rothberg was more than qualified to teach a WSET class. She wondered - could she teach the class herself?

“I decided to call the WSET’s headquarters in London,” said Rothberg. “They basically said the only way I could teach a class would be to start my own school. So that’s what I did.”

Odyssey Wine Academy

In 2021, Rothberg launched Odyssey Wine Academy, the first in-person Wine & Spirit Education Trust certification school in Sonoma County.

Located at Bacchus Landing in Healdsburg, the school offers wine certification in Levels 1 through 3, with classes taught by Rothberg and a team of educators.

From the beginning, Rothberg said she knew she wanted to offer WSET certification in Spanish. Level 1, which provides basic knowledge of wine styles, common grapes, wine tasting and other fundamentals, felt like a good place to start.

“My goal was to offer classes in Spanish so vineyard workers could better understand the end product of what they’re working with,” said Rothberg. “By building awareness, I could create more access and opportunity for them in their careers. Other native Spanish speakers could greatly benefit from the classes, too.”

Opportunities for growth

Around the time Rothberg launched Odyssey Wine Academy, Medlock Ames’ co-founder Ames Morison had been reevaluating the winery’s approach to staff education.

Limiting WSET classes to the hospitality team wouldn’t be enough. He wanted to offer classes to the vineyard team, too.

“Our vineyard team has such incredible site knowledge. They understand every idiosyncrasy of the vineyard and how that influences the fruit,” Morison said. “But they didn’t have a lot of knowledge about wine itself. I wanted to help them understand how their hard work was contributing to the final wine through the WSET’s universally recognized training.”

But finding a local WSET teacher fluent in Spanish wasn’t an easy feat for Rothberg. So Morison, who is fluent in Spanish, decided to become a certified instructor.

This past August, Medlock Ames’ vineyard team became the first to complete Odyssey Wine Academy’s first WSET Level 1 course in Spanish.

Agustin Santiago, a vineyard manager who has worked at Medlock Ames for 24 years, was one of the first to complete the six-hour program.

“The class helped me learn how to taste wine and understand the flavors,” said Santiago. “It also helped me understand the aromas in the wine and what techniques I can use in the vineyard to improve those aromas. It will help me in my career because it improved my understanding of wine and opened my mind to new opportunities.”

For Morison and Rothberg, shepherding native Spanish-speakers through the WSET proved enlightening. While it was a joy to watch the students discover new facets of wine, there were some unexpected obstacles.

“One of the challenges I didn’t anticipate is that many of the students had never taken a formal exam,” said Rothberg. “Most of them told us they could read and write, but that was definitely a challenge.”

With a set curriculum and 30-question exam, there was little Rothberg could do to modify the WSET course for nontraditional learners.

Instead, she partnered with the Sonoma County Winegrowers to develop a new, more accessible course for vineyard workers.

With that program slated to launch in late spring or early summer, Odyssey Wine Academy is gearing up to launch its second WSET Level 1 course in Spanish this June.

Morison is slated to teach the class.

“These classes will be really geared toward native Spanish-speakers who live in the community and may or may not work in wine,” said Rothberg. “For those who do work in wine, these classes can help them communicate with other Spanish speakers who may understand things better in their native tongue. We talk a lot about diversity and inclusion in the wine industry, but there are few resources for Spanish speakers.”

For Francisco López, co-owner of Bacchus Landing and Aldina Vineyards in Healdsburg, Odyssey Wine Academy’s Spanish-language WSET course fills an important niche.

“The Spanish-speaking community is a prominent and important demographic in California,” said López. “It’s important we create these types of programs to educate people who have been historically overlooked — especially in our community where many Spanish speakers work behind the scenes in the wine industry. Hopefully, these classes can help foster a more equitable and inclusive environment where people of all backgrounds can thrive.”

Three years after launching the Odyssey Wine Academy, Rothberg said the school is not part of her retirement plan. Her motivation is a little different.

“I do this because I feel strongly about wine education and creating access for our community,” said Rothberg. “The more people know about wine, the better. It’s really a labor of love.”

You can reach Staff Writer Sarah Doyle at 707-521-5478 or sarah.doyle@pressdemocrat.com. Follow Sarah on Instagram at @whiskymuse.