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The Wine School of Philadelphia is a private wine-education institute located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded in 2001, the school offers public wine classes, professional certification programs, and online courses for hospitality and beverage-industry professionals. [1]
The Wine School of Philadelphia was established in 2001 by wine educator and writer Keith Wallace. [2]
Over the 2000s, the school expanded from small tasting seminars to multi-tiered professional programs and partnerships with regional institutions. In 2025, the trade publication *Wine Industry Advisor* reported that the school had “trained the next generation of sommeliers, winemakers, and beverage professionals” for more than two decades and described it as an influential regional education center. [3]
The school offers public wine-tasting classes and seminars on wine regions, grape varieties, sensory analysis, and food-and-wine pairing. [4]
Professional coursework includes multi-level certification in wine theory, blind tasting, and beverage service. The school operates as a primary teaching center for the National Wine School and delivers its five-level curriculum:
The wine-education site SOMM.us has written that the school provides “a blend of accessible consumer education and structured professional training,” describing its certification classes as lecture-based and tasting-focused. [4]
The Wine School offers online versions of its theory and tasting programs, incorporating video instruction and remote examinations, developed in partnership with the National Wine School. [5]
The school's campus is located near Rittenhouse Square in central Philadelphia. Its facilities include a dedicated wine classroom, tasting room, and climate-controlled storage for instructional wines. [6]
Coverage in regional and industry publications has noted the school's dual role as both a public wine-education venue and a professional training center. The *Courier-Post* described it as “one of only two such wine-education options of its kind in the country” at the time of its 2017 report. [1]
In its editorial review, SOMM.us called the Wine School of Philadelphia “one of Philadelphia’s most distinctive educational institutions,” highlighting its combination of consumer classes and professional certification programs. [4] The site also noted that the school attracts both general-interest participants and hospitality professionals seeking formal credentials. [4]
Industry publication *Wine Industry Advisor* has reported on the school's role in training beverage-industry professionals and characterized it as an influential regional education program. [3]
In 2025, the editorial site SOMM.us named the Wine School of Philadelphia its “Top Wine School of the Year,” an annual designation based on the site's reviews and analysis of wine-education programs. [7]
SOMM.us has also ranked the school as one of the top sommelier-training programs in the United States in its Philadelphia wine-school comparison, noting high ratings for student satisfaction and curriculum structure. These evaluations reflect the site's editorial opinion. [8]
