New year, new decade — the fifth decade of operations for International Wine Center! I’m as excited as anyone about our new efforts and opportunities in 2020.
  1. Launching IWC into its second quarter-century offering WSET courses to learning-hungry wine & spirits professionals
  2. Expanding IWC’s sake program after its exciting start in 2019
  3. Rolling out IWC’s new tagline: “America’s 1st WSET school.”
  4. Taking IWC’s courses off-site, into the home bases of people working in the trade
  5. Helping more wine lovers ignite an interest in spirits with IWC’s excellent and very useful Level 1 Spirits course
  6. Guiding students through the challenges and opportunities of the new WSET Diploma
  7. Inaugurating the new, cornerstone unit of Diploma, D3 — and offering it twice in 2020!
  8. Building ever more support for students undertaking the exams for Level 3 Wines, and accelerating their good pass-rate momentum
  9. Welcoming guest speakers to host in-depth seminars on key topics, as Continuing Professional Development for IWC’s grads and Level 4 students
  10. Attending WSET’s graduation activities in London’s historic Guild Hall — and revisiting last year’s memorable moment when I received the WSET Lifetime Achievement Award
  11. Being part of the education team at the Master of Wine Stage 1 residential program in Woodinville, WA and cheering on several IWC grads among the new MW students
  12. Revisiting my recent MW study trips to Argentina and Chile in prep for teaching two Level 4, D3 classes on South America
  13. Summer!
  14. Adding WSET’s Level 3 Spirits course to IWC’s curriculum
  15. Integrating three new instructors — Andreas, Joanna and Julie — into IWC’s impressive instructor team
  16. Building momentum in IWC’s WSET Level 2 Spirits Course, a real gem in our curriculum
  17. (Hopefully) hearing that the discriminatory tariffs against European wines will be repealed ‑ and that the even more hurtful proposed tariffs never become a reality
  18. Welcoming new Les Dames d’Escoffier scholarship winners to IWC, an annual privilege since 2008
  19. My next Master of Wine study trip abroad, wherever in the wine world that might be
  20. Exploring the possibility of expanding IWC’s website to include an Intranet where students can find and share useful information
  21. Reading the heralded new book, “The Wines of Georgia,” by Lisa Granik MW, IWC grad and friend

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