Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits (“Southern Glazer’s”) – the largest North American wine and spirits distribution company – today announced that approximately 2,500 of its employees have passed the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 Award in Wine and Spirits and 10 employees are now officially certified by the WSET to offer the Level 3 Award in Wine course and Examination to Southern Glazer’s employees around the country.

The Wine and Spirits Education Trust provides best-in-class education and qualification to inspire and empower the world’s wine and spirits professionals and enthusiast. With an offering of nine qualifications covering wine, spirits and sake, the wine Level 3 is an advanced level qualification that provides a thorough understanding of the numerous factors affecting wine style, quality, and price of wines.

“Wine education can be a big undertaking. It involves learning and understanding information months prior to the actual course,” says Eric Hemer, the Company’s Senior VP and Director of Wine Education. “I am very proud to announce that our internal wine educators are now certified to teach the WSET Level 3 Award in Wine to our sales personnel directly. This will allow us to efficiently move ahead with an advanced wine education platform for our sales personnel nationwide. Our goal is to have 100 wine sales employees successfully complete the Level 3 Award in 2018.”

To be able to offer the Level 3 course internally, employees need to take and pass the Level 3 exam and attend the WSET’s Educator Training Program – a four-day program that includes tasting, theory and presentation skills examination.

10 employees went through this process and are now officially certified by the WSET to offer the Level 3 Award in Wine Course and Examination. This course is now available to Southern Glazer’s employees across the country.

Congratulations to all the employees who have successfully passed the WSET Level 2 Award, a prerequisite to applying to the Level 3 course and to the Southern Glazer’s wine education team for passing the Level 3 Award in Wine Course and Examination.

New WSET Certified Level 3 Wine Course and Examination Educators:

  • Serafin Alvarado (Illinois)
  • Brian Bauer (Midwest Region)
  • Matt Citriglia (Florida)
  • Eric Entrikin (California)
  • Eric Hemer (National)
  • Allison Hupp (California)
  • Kathy Morgan (New York)
  • Joseph Phillips (Nevada)
  • Jessica Waugh (Nevada)
  • Jason Wyatt (Kentucky)

Expertise in Wine Education

Southern Glazer’s has more certified wine experts than any other North American wine and spirits distributor. Its employees have successfully completed more than 5,000 wine, sake and spirits education programs, from introductory to master-level achievements.

These include:

  • Over 2,800 Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) wine & spirits certifications;
  • 19 WSET Level 3 Awards in Sake;
  • 1,600 Level 1 Court of Master Sommeliers®;
  • 120 CMS Certified Sommeliers;
  • 20 CMS Advanced Sommeliers;
  • 14 Master Sommeliers®;
  • Over 600 Certified Specialists of Wine (CSW);
  • 16 Certified Wine Educators (CWE); and
  • 117 Certified Specialists of Spirits (CSS).

There are only 147 Master Sommeliers in North America, and 15 of them work for Southern Glazer’s.

About Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is North America’s largest wine and spirits distributor, and the preeminent data insights company for alcoholic beverages. The Company has operations in 44 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, Canada, and the Caribbean, and employs more than 20,000 team members. Southern Glazer’s urges all retail customers and adult consumers to market, sell, serve, and enjoy its products responsibly. For more information visit www.southernglazers.com. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @sgwinespirits and on Facebook at Facebook.com/SouthernGlazers.