Thirsty for facts on wine?

“Wine: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know” — the title of a recent four-part Smithsonian Resident Associate Program — makes a promise that seems impossible to fulfill.

Can a person ever know all about a subject as complicated as wine? How much do you want to know, anyway?

Fortunately, such questions can be answered many different ways in the Greater Washington area. The region offers abundant opportunities for learning about wine on many levels.

Wine lovers come in many forms as well. For some people, “everything” means just enough to be able to buy wines they like and order sensibly when dining out. Going beyond the basics takes time and multiple tasting experiences in and outside a classroom.

Courses providing in-depth knowledge, including the history, cultivation and even distribution of wine, are on another level, involving textbooks and requiring sustained effort.

Television never seems to have found a popular enough way to educate consumers on wine in the same manner as it has with home repair and decoration.

A third avenue that has opened up in recent years is online courses. One of the most notable is offered by Wine Spectator at www.winespectatorschool.com. The flex-time course is geared to professionals and serious amateurs who pay $75 for four classes given over eight weeks. It involves optional quizzes and a final exam.

The provocatively titled Smithsonian seminar is just one of that institution’s frequent educational events centered on wine and/or spirits, often paired with food and talks about the geography of a particular region.

The recent series, taught by Lisa Airey, acting executive director of the Washington-based Society of Wine Educators, drew 125 people.

Typically, such events involve tasting wine in an informal setting. Such programs always are popular and often are sold out, according to SRA spokeswoman Christine Cimino.

“I guess it is because they are learning something and are having fun,” she says. “People want to learn what to serve and what types go with what food. They see it on TV and [think] it is fun to see a live person talk about it.”

Ms. Airey, who worked in the wholesale end of the wine trade for 12 years, tailors her presentations according to questions she gets from the audience.

“Based on the caliber of questions, I get a read on their level,” she says. The Society of Wine Educators, she explains, is dedicated primarily to professional development and certification in wine. Its members are from “just about every facet of the wine industry,” she notes.

Community colleges occasionally sponsor courses as part of continuing-education programs. “From Grape to the Bottle” was the title of one given in the past at Maryland’s Harford County Community College, taught by a member of the family that owns Fiore Winery in Pylesville, Md.

The 10-week classes Rob Stewart has taught three times a year for the past 18 years under his moniker, the Sommelier Wine & Food Society, have spawned a number of self-styled experts who have branched out on their own.

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