Intovino’s The Art of Wine interactive course is an immersive learning experience into understanding the world of wine.
Wine is something easy to fall in love with, but can be incredibly difficult to understand, much less master. And while there are plenty of available resources for those interested to delve deeper and wider into the world of wine, much of it is focused at a professional level. Those certification courses targeted at sommeliers and other beverage professionals – such as those from Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), Society of Wine Educators (SWE) – are generally too intensive and hard-core for casual learners or those aspiring but unsure about dipping their toes professionally into wine.
Enter The Art of Wine by Intovino. Started by Cyrus Tchahardehi and Grégoire Frileux, Intovino is an online resource to help wine enthusiasts understand and appreciate wine better. Tchahardehi’s background in both wine – he headed sales and marketing for Burgundy’s Boisset Family Estates and also ran a wine subscription service – as well as in online training with UK’s Rehoba Training put him in good stead in putting Intovino together.
What you’ll find in the Art of Wine is a smorgasbord of wine knowledge presented in easily digestible formats on its site. But while you can access Intovino without a subscription, purchasing a subscription unlocks a wealth of content. Aside from a series of online wine guides – for example, on wine grapes like Zinfandel, or specific winemaking regions such as Chateauneuf du Pape – for casual reading, subscription opens up content such as interactive material and even virtual reality content covering almost every aspect of the wine world stuck behind the paywall.
But a wine learning experience won’t be complete if there isn’t a practical component to complement all the theory. And that’s where Intovino’s The Art of Wine course toolbox comes into play. The nifty package contains little wine samples to use in a guided online tasting, and an aroma kit – with tiny vials of different scents – to help you understand a wine’s aroma profile. Also included is a cardboard virtual reality headset you can assemble to help you, when watching VR content such as winery or vineyard visits, to bring your learning to life.
Is the Art of Wine then the perfect wine learning experience? While the content is well-written in easy-to-digest prose, there are a few inaccuracies to look out for. For example Intovino claims that you can’t taste salty or umami flavours in wine, we know those can be present in wine as byproducts of vinification. Also we wished the course tool box was better made; the cardboard goggles are uncomfortable to wear, and some of the sample bottles we got in our box were slightly damaged in transit. But we’re just nitpicking here.
Already certified wine professionals are likely to already be familiar with the content within, but can still benefit especially with the video content. But it’s really targeted at wine neophytes so if you’re not looking to get yourself certified professionally in the world of wine, The Art of Wine is a very good resource.
The Art of Wine by Intovino is available exclusively in Singapore from Iconic Wines Singapore at a price of S$339 before GST. Iconic Wines Singapore is offering a special first-come, first-served launch offer for the first 40 course enrolments; email sales@iconicwines.online to obtain the launch offer.
