VWE Academy Masterclass: Does Virginia Have a Wine Identity?  A State Grape Blend?  A Virginia Wine Deep Dive.  Grand Tasting Included.

In partnership with the Erin Scala, the Virginia Wine Expo presents a two-class Virginia Wine Expo Academy Masterclass course, a unique and unparalleled opportunity to learn more about whether Virginia wine has developed a true wine identity and if so, what is it?  Can Virginia claim to have a state grape or blend?   

Please join Sommelier Erin Scala, owner of In Vino Veritas Fine Wines, named a Wine Enthusiast 40 Under 40, and owner of consultancy, ThinkBev, for a fascinating, enriching and delicious seminar will educate and enlighten your understanding of Virginia wine.

This two-class courses includes admission to the Saturday VIP/Early Walk-Around Grand Tasting, mere steps away from the seminar area.

Your Ticket Includes the Following:

• Class #1 - Online & Taped via Zoom on Saturday, February 22, 2025, 10AM - 11:15AM, or anytime thereafter via taped replay
• Class #2 - LIVE at Main Street Station on Saturday, March 8, 2025, 9:15AM - 11:00AM: This class includes a comprehensive tasting of Virginia wine
• Saturday Afternoon VIP/Early Walk-Around Grand Tasting on Saturday, March 8, 2025, 11:00AM to 4:00PM: This event is literally steps away from the Academy masterclass and begins just as the Academy masterclass concludes.

Masterclass Details

• The first, virtual class will primarily focus on Virginia's wine history and culture, terroir, biodiversity, viticultural regions, notable grape varietals, techniques and challenges, economics, distinctive characteristics, and place in the greater wine world.  

• The second, live class at Main Street Station with a will be a thorough, comprehensive tasting of the most relevant grape varietals and blends from Virginia and, for comparative purposes, several regions of the world in search of the answer as to whether or not Virginia has a truly defined wine identity and a state grape or blend.

• You'll taste 12+ highly regarded wines

• You may arrive at 9am to seat yourself

About Sommelier Erin Scala

For the better part of a decade, Erin worked in New York City at several Michelin star restaurants, notably JoJo, PUBLIC, and The Musket Room. In 2014, she returned to her home state of Virginia to run the wine programs at local downtown restaurants, Fleurie & Petit Pois. Today, she is the sommelier at Common House social club in downtown Charlottesville, and since 2017, she's owned In Vino Veritas Fine Wines, a wine retail shop in Keswick, Virginia. Erin writes the thinking-drinking wine blog, produces audio essays for the I’ll Drink to That wine podcast, and consults about wine privately and commercially through her company, ThinkBev. Her articles about wine have been published in The Washington Post, Wine & Spirits, Wine & Country Living, and Knife & Fork magazine. For several years, she covered the Virginia wine scene in a column for her local paper, The C-Ville Weekly.  Named one of Wine Enthusiast's 40 Under 40 wine professionals to watch, her wine list at Fleurie won a Wine Spectator “Best of Award of Excellence” in 2016 and 2017. Erin received a James Beard Rhône Rangers Travel Study Grant to study Rhône varieties in California in 2016. She competed in the Sommelier Scavenger Hunt held by Wine & Spirits Magazine to find delicious Pinot Noirs in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA in 2017. In January 2018, the I'll Drink to That podcast was written up in the New York Times.   Certified as a Certified Sake Professional, and also with the WSET Diploma of Wines and Spirits, she believes that fermented beverages are a unique and dynamic communion with time and place, and that often the best beverages come from small vineyards, orchards, and breweries using products farmed by passionate families who believe in minimal intervention.

Special Discount for the Trade

The wine trade will receive a 20% discount on the cost to enroll in this class.  Interested members of the trade should e-mail Alex Papajohn at apapajohn@VariantEvents.com for details on trade enrollment.