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.

Michael Flynn, sommelier at Kinkead’s restaurant, who will be a speaker at an upcoming Smithsonian Resident Associate event, is a graduate, as is Mark Phillips, who started the Wine Tasting Association 15 years ago; he says it has 1,000 members.

The $50 Wine Tasting Association membership fee — $85 for couples — is good primarily for discounts at wine stores and embassy events, Mr. Phillips says, because he offers one-night-only classes “very infrequently.” He describes his approach to wine as being opposite that represented by Mr. Stewart, whom he calls “old school.”

“I’m not doing serious stuff. I’m more irreverent and more practical. How to taste is my strong suit. I don’t go by grape variety, which is what most classes are centered on. I go for the feeling of wine — acidity, tannin and body.”

Barry Bassin of Tasmin Imports in Northwest, a member of the Wine Educators Society, started what he calls the Georgetown Wine School (www.winestudies.com), which will begin classes again in September. Another resource is the Washington Wine Academy, a nonprofit group that hosts public and private educational wine tastings given by prominent wine columnists such as Paul Lukacs, a contributor to The Washington Times’ food pages.

New this year for the Wine Academy is a three-day Weekend Wine Camp at two Virginia locations beginning July 23. The camp is described on the academy Web site (www.washingtonwineacademy.org) as “an introductory workshop to the enjoyment of wine.” The cost is $48.

Mr. Stewart, wine manager at Rick’s Wine & Gourmet in Alexandria, titles his classes the “Wine Captain’s Course,” but serious amateurs are included as well. They pay $450 tuition, which includes a textbook and a chance to taste about 125 wines. The two-hour sessions are held weekly in an upstairs meeting room at Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel, which was chosen for its central location.

Members of the current class, which began June 20 and ends with an exam Aug. 22, include a waitress at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown (which is reimbursing her tuition) and a Falls Church couple who say they simply wanted to learn more on the subject from a professional.

One recent Wednesday, several dozen students were grouped at round tables set with a water pitcher and a bucket. Three glasses were in front of each student— two for wine, one for water. The bucket was for emptying any wine left over between the samples offered.

An assistant, Lisa Chedister, opened the bottles and poured a portion into everyone’s glass while Mr. Stewart lectured in good humor, giving his personal menu favorites for wines from three regions of France that were the theme of the night.

His enthusiasm was palpable, no more so than when he explained labels and spoke about some of the mysterious elements involved — such as how two wines from adjoining vineyards in the same climate can be very different.

“He takes wine — a complicated subject — and makes it manageable,” said Andrew Kirk, a manager of Clyde’s Tower Oaks Lodge in Rockville, whose general manager had recommended he take the course.