Discover Wine & Spirits Academy, San Francisco

Students swirl the wine in their glasses, scrutinizing the legs that form and inhaling the fragrances before taking slow, calculated sips. They hold the wine in their mouths, blindly matching the wine's notes and overtones to the 70–80 international wines they've tasted during the 30-hour advanced Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) certification course. In classes such as these, the instructors at Discover Wine & Spirits Academy—many of whom hold DWS (Diploma Wine and Spirits) and WSET certifications—foster a supportive but challenging atmosphere, either by sparking complex discussions or slowly filling the room with wine. Those not training for certification helm a Wine 101 class that unveils the basics of wine history, tasting terminology, and food and wine pairing. They also lead daylong classes on specific regions to uncover the varied flavors of Argentinean wines, explore the Old-World winemaking traditions of France, or try to relate to the fatalistic neorealism of Italian wines.