[ Metal clanking ]
[ALLEN GREGORIOS] So, this is our brand-new rosé
just released about two weekends ago.
[NARRATOR] Allen Gregorios never dreamed he'd work in the wine industry.
[ALLEN GREGORIOS] The Albariño Spanish varietal.
[NARRATOR] But here in the tasting room at Elsom Cellars,
he feels at home.
[ALLEN GREGORIOS] Even in my family, Filipino culture,
there's not that much influence in wine.
Mostly spirits, beer.
But it's crazy now how much I'm called
during family, you know, gatherings,
or I'm the wine guy now of the family.
What it does say is hand-harvested grapes.
[NARRATOR] Allen credits the Northwest Wine Academy
with helping him to learn more about the industry
and advance his career in the world of wine.
-Cool. Let’s taste some wines.
-The one thing that I loved about those classes
were how hands-on they were.
That's one of the one things with wine,
especially, like, if you're learning how to taste,
being able to go into a classroom and then being --
being curated by a sommelier as well, kind of opens your eyes.
[NARRATOR] The Northwest Wine Academy is located on the campus
of South Seattle College.
It was established in 2004 and is the only working
and teaching winery in western Washington.
-This is basically the process,
so we'll let that run for 10 minutes...
[NARRATOR] The academy offers certificates and degrees
in wine production and marketing and sales,
opening doors for a lot of people
who never thought they would end up working in wine.
[NIHAL WALIMBE] What’s around, mm-hmm, and, like, the Sangiovese.
[NARRATOR] Nihal Walimbe grew up in India and is an international student
who found his way to the academy.
[NIHAL WALIMBE] I’m doing the marketing and sales and food and wine,
currently taking classes like food and wine,
pairing wines of the world, and business operations.
[NARRATOR] Walimbe has big dreams.
He believes his schooling will enable him
to open his own restaurant someday.
[NIHAL WALIMBE] Hopefully work in a restaurant
as a sommelier for a couple of years
and then probably move back home and open up my own restaurant
because my interest is both culinary and wine.
[NARRATOR] Lenny Rede leads the culinary side of the academy.
He's worked in the industry for several decades
and has a passion to help students
like Walimbe fulfill their dreams.
[LENNY REDE] Here we’ve got restaurants and retailers, importers.
You know, we're, you know --
we have graduates that have come out of the program
that have started import companies.
They're working for import companies.
You know, we have people that are working for distributors
that have started distributors.
And again, a lot of the sommeliers
I can't walk into a restaurant in this town
and not have one of the graduates, you know,
went on to graduate of the program.
[JOHN DARIN] This is a very standard procedure.
[NARRATOR] John Darin is the winemaker and winemaking instructor.
He says he has students of all ages
and backgrounds learning about wine.
[JOHN DARIN] We have a real strong focus on diversity here.
We have students of every imaginable background.
You can see, you know, we have students that are international.
We have students that are, you know,
either older or come from, you know, backgrounds
that don't necessarily -- aren't classically aligned
with the winemaking community.
[NARRATOR] The academy also has a tasting room that reopened
in late 2022 after it shut down during the pandemic.
This allows the public to sample its wines
and give students hands-on experience in a tasting room.
[JOHN DARIN] There it is.
[NARRATOR] And it's not just the students
who appreciate the classes that are offered here.
The wine industry recognizes the benefits
of the academy as well.
[JOHN DARIN] The program does better, you know, they do better.
We are one of the main suppliers for a lot of the, you know,
labor coming into, you know, all of Seattle.
So a lot of the people who have gone on
to be very successful there did go through this program.
[JODY ELSOM] Have you been here before?
[NARRATOR] Back at Elsom Cellars,
which is a female-owned and led winery located in SoDo,
Jody Elsom, the owner and founder,
wishes the academy was open when she went to school.
She had to commute from Seattle to Prosser
when she took classes through the WSU extension program.
[JODY ELSOM] They just want to share that knowledge,
and they have a passion for sharing it with everyone.
So it's been a huge benefit.
And we see it in our employees.
They come with a special passion for the wine
and an inherent knowledge that you wouldn't typically see.
[NARRATOR] Elsom values the Northwest Wine Academy so much
she's hired employees who've taken courses there,
including her winemaker.
[REBECCA WEBER
and there is a lot of passion for wine in this area.
We don't have a lot of vines here,
but being able to make it in the city
and learn about wines from around the world,
it's a very global industry.
[JANESSA BENSON] This is actually the first wine
that I ever had the experience of personally bottling.
I had no idea that there was any wine program
in western Washington,
and so I had started looking into it, thinking,
"I don't want to go for a full degree."
I don't ever want to make wine.
I don't particularly, at this point in my life,
want to work full-time.
So I contacted them and said, "Can I just take classes?"
And they were super open to that.
[ALLEN GREGORIOS] This is our Mourvèdre.
[NARRATOR] Gregorios plans to take more classes
at the academy while working at Elsom Cellars
to earn his AA degree, along with a wine certificate.
This will allow him to continue working in the field
he's so passionate about.
-Mix them together, right.
[NARRATOR] He believes the academy
is critical to the growth of wine in Seattle.
[JOHN DARIN] That’s cool, guys.
[NARRATOR] Especially for those with diverse backgrounds
who want to further their education in this growing field.
[ALLEN GREGORIOS
which is awesome.
And there's always been that stigma.
But, yeah, there's a lot more people of color -- Asian, Black.
Everyone's, you know, starting to get into it,
which is awesome.
♪♪
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