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Wine Styles 101

5 out of 5 starsTrusted by 20,000+ students

Train your palate, one style at a time

Taste the six wine styles every drinker should know, side by side. Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, GSM, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, and a Bordeaux blend, with our wine experts in your ear.

  • 5 chapters
  • 21 lessons
  • 13 videos
  • 1.5h
$99.99$134.99
lifetime access · usd

30-day money-back guarantee

Wine Styles 101 course mark

Why Wine Styles 101

Drink it. Taste it. Actually understand it.

Most wine education is theory. This one puts a glass in your hand. You'll work through six wines side by side, with prompts on what to look for, how to describe it, and why it tastes the way it does. By the end you'll know which styles you love, how to talk about them, and how to find them in any wine shop.

Curriculum

5 chapters, 13 videos, 6 wines

  1. Chapter 1

    Introduction

    How the course works, why side-by-side tasting actually trains your palate, and the six wines we'll work through together.

    2 lessons

  2. Chapter 2

    Setting up your tasting

    Pick your bottles, prep your table, and learn the tasting setup (glasses, water, white paper for color) that makes side-by-side comparisons actually work.

    2 videos · 5 lessons

  3. Chapter 3

    Helpful tips

    Five short videos on the practical skills: opening with a waiter's friend, decanting over a candle, reading color and wine legs, finding aromas, and tasting for quality.

    5 videos · 6 lessons

  4. Chapter 4

    The tasting course

    The main event: six guided tastings through Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay, GSM, Sangiovese, Tempranillo, and a Bordeaux blend, plus references for going deeper.

    6 videos · 7 lessons

  5. Chapter 5

    Conclusion

    Where to go next, references for further reading, and how to keep training your palate after the course wraps.

    1 lessons

Every grape, region, and map at your fingertips. keep studying with Wine Folly+ →

Inside the course

Built for tasting, not just watching

The method

Six wines, side by side

These six styles were picked to target different traits on your palate: a high-acid unoaked white, an oaked white, a light Mediterranean red, a structured Italian red, a powerful Spanish red, and a full-bodied Bordeaux blend. Tasting them together is what makes the differences click.

The skills

Opening, decanting, swirling, smelling

Five short videos cover the practical wine skills most courses skip: how to use a waiter's friend, decanting over a tea light to catch sediment, reading the color and wine legs (the Gibbs–Marangoni effect), finding aromas, and tasting for quality. Skills you'll use the next time you open any bottle.

Companion

Pair it with The Master Guide

Wine Styles 101 builds the palate; the Wine Folly Master Guide builds the reference library. Most students keep the book open during the tasting course and use it to dig deeper after. Same expert voice, designed to work together.

See the book

Course wines

The six styles you'll taste

Wines aren't included with the course, but tasting along is encouraged. Here's the lineup. Each style is chosen to target a different trait on your palate. Bottles we used during filming are noted in case you want to drink exactly what we drank.
  • Sauvignon Blanc

    Sauvignon Blanc

    Marlborough, New Zealand

    A high-acid unoaked white. Seek out a young (recent vintage) Marlborough bottle from a producer who grows their own grapes. NZ has some of the highest organic-vineyard rates in the world. Filmed with: Loveblock Sauvignon Blanc.

  • Chardonnay

    Chardonnay

    Sonoma / California

    The oaked-white reference point. California Chardonnay shows what malolactic fermentation and barrel aging do to a wine. Filmed with: Matanzas Creek Alexander Valley Chardonnay.

  • GSM Rhône Blend

    GSM Rhône Blend

    Languedoc-Roussillon, France

    Grenache-Syrah-Mourvèdre. A light, Mediterranean red built for the table. Filmed with: Domaine de Fontsainte Corbières Rouge.

  • Sangiovese

    Sangiovese

    Chianti Classico, Tuscany

    Italy's most planted red grape and the spine of Chianti. Bright acidity, savory tannin, food-first by design. Filmed with: Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva.

  • Tempranillo

    Tempranillo

    Rioja, Spain

    Rioja Reserva shows what extended oak and bottle age do to a powerful red. Leather, dried fruit, vanilla, dust. Filmed with: Bodegas Muga Reserva.

  • Bordeaux Blend

    Bordeaux Blend

    Columbia Valley, Washington

    Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot at the structured end of the spectrum. Tannin, depth, and ageability. Filmed with: Mark Ryan "The Dissident."

Every region, grape, and map at your fingertips. keep studying with Wine Folly+ →

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Your wine guide

Taught by the founder of Wine Folly

Wine Styles 101 is taught by Madeline Puckette, the James Beard Award-winning author of the bestselling Wine Folly book. Over 20,000 students taught.
Madeline Puckette

Madeline Puckette

Wine Folly Founder

Madeline frames why each style tastes the way it does, with the same approachable storytelling that built Wine Folly into the world's go-to wine cheat sheet.

Wine Folly co-founder, James Beard Award winner, and New York Times bestselling author.

Read full bio
Madeline co-founded Wine Folly in 2011 and turned it into the world's go-to wine cheat sheet.

She's a James Beard Award winner, a New York Times bestselling author, and was named both Wine Blogger of the Year and Wine Communicator of the Year by the International Wine & Spirits Competition.

Her articles, infographics, and videos are what made wine knowledge feel approachable to a generation of drinkers.

student reviews

What students are saying

“As someone new to working in the wine industry, I was overwhelmed with the amount of information on wine. I didn't know where to start. I've been a bartender for the last 7 years and emphasized on spirits and cocktails. Wine was still new to me. This course was the perfect place to get a baseline on styles, regions, how to pick a wine at a liquor store, etc. The information is laid out very thoughtfully and easy to understand. My girlfriend and I did the course together one evening and had so much fun. I'd highly recommend this course to anyone looking to expand their basic knowledge on wine.”

Jonathan R.

“I bought this course for my partner and me as total beginners. We usually bought the casual bottle of wine and it was pure luck to get one we like. Speaking of which, we weren’t even able to articulate what we liked or disliked. Doing the “DIY Wine Palate Training Excercise” and this course afterward gives us a solid fundamental knowledge. We now know what to pay attention to when we face a glass of wine, and we now what we like and what not. I can highly recommend this course to learn the fundamentals of tasting. The instructor is very fun and we greatly enjoyed her style of teaching.”

Steven B.

“We broke this class up into 3 different nights - 2 bottles per, and really enjoyed the videos. Madeline strikes the perfect balance of being educational and informative, while also keeping it light and fun. Both of us felt much more knowledgable on how to properly assess and taste wine after the courses and we highly recommend this course. Although its a little obnoxiously on trend, I do genuinely like "funky" wines and would love to see a course highlighting a few. Specifically a course that speaks to the specific bottles / producers chosen.”

Ross D.

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free book

Wine Styles 101

The Master Guide, included free

$99.99$134.995 out of 5 stars

Same price as the course alone, with the bestselling Wine Folly Master Guide shipped free to US addresses. The reference book the tasting course refers back to, yours to keep.

  • 5 chapters, 6 major styles
  • 21 lessons, 13 expert videos
  • Side-by-side tasting walkthroughs
  • Tasting setup guide and PDF
  • Lifetime access, yours forever
  • The Master Guide hardcover, free
  • James Beard winner, NYT bestseller
just want the course? get it for $99.99

30-day money-back guarantee

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Next step

Ready for the full picture?

Wine 101 takes you from a trained palate to a complete foundation, taught by the same Wine Folly team. 75 lessons, 8 chapters, same instructors.

explore the next course →