Bring your curiosity and learn about and sample the world's finest potables in our Wine Cellar classes, which encompass a full range of wine, beer and spirits instruction.
This is a very exciting time for the fermented grape. The quality, range, and value of products available to wine drinkers keep expanding, as new wine regions are developing and producing terrific vintages to enjoy and explore.

The ICE Center for Wine Studies is designed to build your understanding, awareness, and appreciation for the whole spectrum of wine, as well as other beverages such as beer, spirits, and sake.

The ICE Center for Wine Studies includes a mix of one-session, two-session and six-session classes. The most in-depth wine tasting class at The Institute is the Wine Essentials class, which meets once a week for six weeks, with each session dedicated to a particular topic, such as Bordeaux or sparkling and dessert wines. The school's Wine and Food Workshops teach students to enjoy wines in combination with food. There are also classes on the wines of France, Italy and the west coast of the United States, and the ever-popular Really Great Wines for Under $15, an apt choice for the budget-minded wine consumer. In short, whatever your wine tastes and needs, there is a class at The Institute to fulfill them.

This fall, we are also adding a new dimension to the program: certificates. The first level of certification is called the Premier Cru Certificate, and the advanced second level is titled the Grand Cru Certificate. Earning these is a way to affirm your newfound knowledge and sample a globe's worth of great wine.

Our wine tasting room is a 900 square-foot facility with full ventilation (so cooking odors from the pastry kitchens don't intrude), bright incandescent light and white tabletops (for accurate wine viewing). The instructors of The Institute who teach our wine classes, as well as our beer and spirits classes are some of the most competent and celebrated in all of New York City.

 Wine Tasting Class
Richard Vayda- Director of Wine Studies.

Richard Vayda is the Director of Wine Studies at the Institute of Culinary Education. He is also a senior instructor in the school's Culinary Management Diploma program. Vayda's education includes a master's degree in Foodservice Management from NYU, studies at The Sorbonne in Paris, a certificate from The Sommelier Society of America, as well as visits to all of the world's major winemaking areas. His love affair with wine and food began in his Italian and Russian family, where he started to make homemade wine as a teenager. Vayda has also opened and owned restaurants, cafés, and lounges in Connecticut and New York. Some of his favorite wines are rosés from Provence, aged cabernets, and of course, Champagne. 		Ron Ciavolino, Director of Wine Studies
Richard Vayda
   
Other Instructors Include:

• Ron Ciavolino began his formal wine studies many years ago when he attended the summer cooking program offered by the Gritti Palace Hotel in Venice. At that time, he was fortunate enough to study Italian wines with the sommelier of the Gritti, Dino Lapucci. Then as a student in the professional cooking program at the old Peter Kump's New York Cooking School (now ICE), he participated in the magnificent wine classes offered in connection with that program. He subsequently studied wine with Kevin Zraly at the famous Windows on the World Wine School where he served as a course assistant. In addition, he has studied with Mary Ewing Mulligan at the International Wine Center and is the holder of the Higher Certificate awarded by the Wine and Spirit Educational Trust of Great Britain. In 1996 he was awarded the title of Sommelier, after having successfully completed the course of studies offered by the Sommelier Society of America.

• Anthony Caporale is the producer and host of Art of the Drink TV, and beverage manager for Bobby Flay’s flagship Mesa Grill. Art of the Drink is the leading web TV series on cocktails and bartending with over 75 award-winning episodes spanning nearly four years of production.  Art of the Drink TV is an iTunes top-twenty-five Food Podcast and was named Best Instructional Vlog by Lulu.TV, Best Instructional Podcast by The New York Times Online, and was nominated for a Tasty Award for Best Food or Drink Podcast.  It has been translated into Spanish and Chinese, making it available in the world's three most widely-spoken languages.  Anthony is also a favorite guest on the WPIX-TV Morning Show in New York, has appeared on Martha Stewart Living Radio, and is a regular contributor to Chilled Magazine.

• W.R. Tisch, known in the wine trade simply as Tish, has been writing and speaking about wine and food for more than a decade. As editor of Wine Enthusiast Magazine from 1988 to 1998, he re-worked the publication to position it as a spunkier alternative to other wine magazines. Tish also has written on wine and food for publications including In Style, Details, Private Clubs, Beverage Media and Williams-Sonoma Taste, and a number of websites. In addition to teaching at ICE®, he is also auctioneer for the annual Hudson Valley Wine Showcase & Auction.

• Samuel Merritt is the President, Civilization of Beer Education Consulting. Merritt sold specialty beer in New York from 1996 to 2006 for the Craft Brewers Guild and the Brooklyn Brewery. In 2006, after researching the availability of beer education across the U.S., he founded Civilization of Beer, a beer education consulting company whose first goal is to close the gap between beer studies and wine studies in the professional culinary community and return beer to its proper place at the American table. Sam is one of 31 Certified Cicerone TM. beer sommeliers in the US and he travels the country training distributor sales forces, speaking at public and private events, and doing brand consultation while thoroughly enjoying beer, beer people, and beer culture along the way.

…and check our schedule of wine classes often for more master sommeliers and mixologists teaching at ICE®.