TO DRINK, PERCHANCE TO TEACH
A couple of educated oenophiles find their calling in a wine-country classroom.
By Eileen M. Duffy

Who hasn’t faced a desire to change careers, to get out of an office and into something you’re passionate about? Something that involves travel and perhaps the consumption of fine wine.

The head scratching starts. Maybe a wine journalist, a consultant, a sommelier, sales—wholesale or retail—opening a wine bar or, if you’re going all the way, winemaker or vineyard owner? But what about education? Plenty of people want to learn about wine. So you could hold wine tastings for a fee or teach classes at an established institution or freelance in other people’s homes, for corporations or, if you’re lucky enough to live in a wine region, at local wineries.

Now you’re thinking, being considered an expert is not all bad, and there’s the research, which would involve traveling and the consumption of fine wine.

But what if your job change desires include working for yourself?

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I know: Start a school.

This may seem like a monumental undertaking, but for husband- and-wife team Tracy Ellen Kamens and Jared Skolnick it was an “aha” moment. Of course, a school! Kamens has a doctorate in education and Skolnick knew that owning a vineyard would be too much of a gamble.

So undertake it they did. The couple bought property in Mattituck, the former home of the Catapano goat farm (with its nutrient- rich soil, perfect for planting an educational vineyard), which is nestled in the front yard of Macari Vineyards.

While Skolnick set to work creating a classroom out of a barn once used to make goat cheese, and using his experience in information technology to create a Web site, Kamens started educating herself.

She joined the Society of Wine Educators and studied and took the required courses and tests to become a certified wine educator, the society’s highest certification. At the same time in 2005, she enrolled in classes at the International Wine Center in New York, resulting in a 2008 diploma, that institution’s highest credential.

She started teaching classes at venues in New York City, where the couple lives during the week, and reached out to local wineries to teach classes on the weekends. By 2008 she felt confident enough to quit her day job as a higher education administrator at New York University and work full-time for the couple’s new business, Grand Cru Classes (with the tag line, “We Know Vino”).

Giving a tour of the refurbished barn and the makeshift wine cellar in the basement where Skolnick makes his own wine, the couple relived their decisions and the path that led them to buy an automatic glass washer on eBay, install full-spectrum lights and plant 99 vines—because that’s what fit—in their backyard.

“We knew we were in trouble when on a trip to Newport we started seeking out the local wineries,” says Kamens, as Skolnick laughed and nodded.

“That’s normal for a European vacation,” he says. “But in Rhode Island?”

Their trips to wine regions led them to value what is now in their own backyard, a wine community that is as much a part of their global interest in wine as their extremely local needs as vineyard owners.

“We’re excited about the region and being a part of the community,” says Kamens, while Skolnick noted that the community just as readily took them in. His vineyard is organic and he’s researching making it biodynamic and has received help, materials and advice from other winemakers and vineyard owners, which only reinforces their decision to create a school, he says.

The two’s natural tendencies have created a natural division of labor. Kamens, being more “book-oriented” spends her prep time creating curricula and making PowerPoint presentations to accompany her classes. They focus not only on Long Island wine, which is the subject of a class called “From Potato Fields to Parker Points,” but on food
and wine pairing, concentrating on the world’s “great grapes” and the progress the grape makes “From Vine to Wine.”

Skolnick gets his hands dirty. To make his vineyard as green as possible, he uses leftover wine as weed killer and is looking into solar as well as preserving rainwater for irrigation. Late in April he planted cover crops—field peas and oats—that will, instead of providing food for them, create food for the 33 chardonnay, 33 merlot and 33 cabernet franc vines.

The vines stand a pruner’s throw from the classroom, where Kamen’s diplomas hang and at least 10 classes are scheduled for the summer. The classes can be taken as a series or can stand alone. The school’s mission, says Kamens, is to give people the tools and the vocabulary to be a little more confident about wine. So far they’ve been working with local bed-and-breakfasts to provide activities for guests and have conducted workshops for tasting room and restaurant workers.

For the couple, the possibilities are limitless.

“There’s so many ways of looking at wine,” says Kamens. “And we’re having so much fun.”