Rethinking Wine Training: How Veraison Is Building Confidence Through Learning

In this Q&A, we speak with Bob Davidson, Wine Training Manager at Veraison, about rethinking the way wine education is delivered and the importance of building confidence, curiosity and inclusion within the drinks industry.

What is Veraison?
Veraison is the training department and programme of Berkmann Wine Cellars.  It was launched in 2016, and I came on board in 2022 to revamp the curriculum and launch an e-learning platform.

The content of what we teach isn’t wildly different from other wine training programmes – it is just a drink made from grapes, after all.  The difference lies in how we teach it.  We were the first training programme to hire a behavioural scientist to ensure that the  methods we use are the most cutting-edge in the business, and I’m hopeful that other trainers will adopt our approaches too.

Can you give an example of some things you do differently?

There are several, but perhaps the core tenet of our approach is to create ‘self-efficacy’.  ‘Self-efficacy’ is the confidence in one’s ability, and to exert influence over events.  It might sound a little bit glib, but this is the single biggest challenge I have found in training people – the number of people, especially in the on-trade, who come into a session believing that they “can’t taste wine”.  Obviously they can, they’ve just been taught that they can’t, usually from attending some previous wine training.

People think that they can’t taste wine due to the opposite of ‘self-efficacy’; ‘learned helplessness’.  This was a term coined in the 1960s by a psychologist called Seligman, who performed an ethically questionable experiment involving electrocuting dogs.  Essentially, if the dogs learned that nothing they did would improve their situation they stopped trying, even when it was obvious that they could escape the shocks.  A lot of traditional wine education does the same thing, killing people’s spirits by telling them are wrong in what they’re tasting, even if not explicitly.  That’s what I mean by the wine trade needs to stop electrocuting dogs.

OK, so how do you do that?

One of the simplest ways to encourage self efficacy in terms of wine (or drinks in general) training is to approach it in the exact opposite way it is classically taught.  Trying to teach people that X tastes of Y implies that there is a standard of correctness that X does, indeed, taste of Y, which is all very well, until you realise the logical implication – anyone who doesn’t taste Y is getting it ‘wrong’.  I’ve had people say that they can’t taste wine as they’ve never eaten a pear so don’t know what it tastes like, when tasting wine is clearly not predicated on what’s in your fruit bowl.

Instead of telling people what wines taste like, we get them to co-create a list of descriptors that they feel honest using (with some curation of course), to give them a sense of ownership and confidence.  It’s also a far more inclusive form of training because it doesn’t depend on having a specific cultural background or lived experience.

Is this something anyone can do?

Absolutely!  I’d strongly encourage anyone doing any training to at least try it this way a couple of times.  One of the most destructive things people can do is go in with a pre-prepared selection of tasting notes and telling people what they are supposed to be tasting.  It will do more harm than good.

Are there any downsides to this approach?

It’s definitely harder to do.  Dealing with a totally silent group is very difficult which is why we have some introductory exercises that try to warm people up. It’s also crucial to make sure the learning environment is as safe and active as possible, which requires a lot of energy.  The other major downside is when something really inappropriate comes up and you have to convince them not to use it with customers, eg “you know when you sniff glue?”.  I vetoed that one.

Who is it available for?

Currently only for BWC customers and people on TDT Develop programme, but long term plans are for expansion.

What advice would you have for anyone working in training?

Stop worrying so much about ‘what’ you are teaching and worry more about ‘how’ you are teaching it.  The wrong approach can kill engagement with some grassroots talent.  Seeing people blossom and start to have an appreciation for wine is a lovely feeling – we can, and should, be doing more of it.