Who Should Attend?
This course is ideal for vineyard managers, viticulture students, winemakers, and operations staff seeking to elevate their vineyard care practical skills and knowledge about key spring vineyard operations.

Elevate your vineyard management skills with our Advanced Principles of Vinegrowing – Spring Operations course. Over three days, explore and learn about crucial spring tasks such as tying down, wire work, bud rubbing and shoot selection, vineyard floor management and pest and disease management to prepare for managing vines during their critical growth period. Frost mitigation and monitoring will also be covered. Ideal for vineyard managers, vineyard workers, winemakers, and viticulture enthusiasts seeking to advance their spring vineyard care knowledge and practical skills.

Spring marks the start of the growing season and is a pivotal period for vineyard care. Learn about essential spring operations, including tying down, wire dropping, bud rubbing, crown clearing, vineyard floor management, spring cover crops, pest and disease management, petiole and sap analysis, monitoring for spring frost. Whether you're refining strategies or seeking advanced knowledge, this course equips you with the skills to optimise vine health and crop yield.

This course is designed for winemakers who want to further their skills in yeast selection to enhance wine aromas and flavours and who are interested in learning about extraction techniques to enhance wine quality. There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

 The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of the benefits of yeast selection on the aromas and flavours in wine. The course also looks at extraction techniques and best practice for established methods and considers new technologies.

 This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking or have a strong interest in wine chemistry and microbiology

English Wine and Sustainability:

Level 5 15 credits

This module has a distinct focus on the English wine industry. Students will examine the history, establishment and structure of the English wine production business. Also investigated will be key producers and recent developments in the industry. The various areas of sustainability and its growing importance to the wine business will also be studied with a particular focus on the English wine industry.

Food & Wine:

Level 4 / 15 Credits

This module aims to provide students with the knowledge and understanding of wine’s relationship to the UK on-trade industry. Students will analyse the key on-trade channels for wine and how products are successfully listed and marketed in bars, hotels and restaurants. The module will also include a number of practical exercises to investigate the principles of food and wine matching.

What are the common wine faults, how are they identified, what are their causes and how are they corrected?

Course content

WineGB’s Training and Education survey ranked sensory evaluation within the top training needs, reflecting the increasing number of English and Welsh wines entering the market.

It is invaluable to be able to spot wine faults and understand why they occur.

This course will bring you the theory of specific wine faults, including a practical application through a tutored tasting.

You will examine faults and their underlying causes, as well as learning the winemaking techniques, and/or storage conditions, to prevent and correct the faults

Aims

Learn to identify faults and taints, and their underlying causes in wines. 

Apply these skills to a winetasting guided by professional winemaker and wine lecturer, Sarah Midgley.

Outcomes

By the end of this course students will be able to:

• Describe off flavours and aromas in wine
• Define specific faults in wine including: Brettanomyces, volatile acidity, light strike, TCA, reduction and oxidation 
• Understand the underlying causes of common wine faults
• Suggest preventative measures against common wine faults
• Recommend corrective actions for faulty wines
• Assess finished wines for faults

Introduces the winemaking theory relating to the key winery operations: tirage, secondary fermentation, disgorging and dosage.

• Tirage and secondary fermentation
• Maturation and lees aging
• Riddling and disgorging
• Dosage

The aims of this intensive and technical three day course are to provide a good level of knowledge and skills in traditional method sparkling winemaking to those who are making and selling sparkling wine.
Day one of the course will introduce the winemaking theory relating to the key winery operations: tirage, secondary fermentation, disgorging and dosage.
Day two focuses on the start of the secondary fermentation in greater detail, and will involve practical activity related to tirage, including the preparation of cultures and adjuvants.
Day three will complete the range of operations specific to sparkling wine with practicals and demonstrations associated with disgorging and dosage.

The aim of this five-day intensive course is to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of vinegrowing to those who wish to start growing grapes, work in a vineyard, enter the wine trade, or have a strong interest in the world of wine.

Each day, vinegrowing theory is introduced in the morning classroom session, then put into practice in the afternoon in the vineyard.

It is based on the seven-day Principles of Vinegrowing course, and enables students to gain a good level of knowledge and understanding of vineyard activities over a short, intense, period of time.

IF YOU ARE LAUNCHING A NEW ENGLISH WINE BRAND, OR WANT TO SELL MORE WINE, THIS IS THE COURSE FOR YOU.

Delivered by Plumpton’s specialist Wine Business lecturers, Paul Harley and Tim Andrews, it will enable you to identify and understand your potential customers and develop the best brand, packaging and routes to market for your wine.  There will be a focus on wine tourism and consumer behaviour, which will enable you to maximise your sales margins.

This workshop is particularly suitable for medium-sized English and Welsh wine producers, both new and established.

The aims of this one week intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of winemaking (oenology) to those who wish to start making wine, work in a winery, enter the wine trade, or have a strong interest in the world of wine. 

During the course, winemaking theory is introduced in the morning classroom session, then put into practice during the afternoon session in the winery.
It is based on the seven-day Principles of Winemaking course, and allows a good understanding of winery activities over a short, intense, period of time.

Through lectures, seminars, guided tastings and site visits, students will gain knowledge and a detailed understanding of how viticultural and oenological decisions can affect the quality of sparkling wines produced with different techniques.

Wine Component Analysis:

Level 4 / 15 Credits

This module will see students exploring and assessing the major components found in commercial wines, whilst also being introduced to the basics of sensory perception. By the end of the module students will be comfortable recognising common wine components, aromas and flavours, including some key faults.

There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking. Winemakers, Cellar Hands, Production Managers and Operatives and Wine Marketing Mangers would benefit from this course.

The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of the various considerations when selecting packaging for wine and the logistics for bottling, including sustainability and packaging lifecycles. It will help students to evaluate the different vessels and closures that are available and how these can influence the maturation of the product. The course will also cover the legal and food safety aspects of packaging wine. 

 This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking, Cellar Hands who are interested in learning more about this important stage of wine production or wine enthusiasts who want to learn more about this subject.

There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

 The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of factors that can affect wine quality and how to best avoid issues. The course will also cover pre-bottling analysis, post-bottling analysis and legal requirements, managing fill-heights, managing pressure in sparkling wine bottles.   

This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking or have a strong interest in wine chemistry and microbiology.

There will be an assumed level of knowledge and prior experience of winemaking, with a minimum of 1 year harvest experience. Wine enthusiasts with a background in microbiology and/or chemistry may also find this course of interest.

The aims of this one-day intensive course are to provide a good level of knowledge and understanding of the different forms of instability that can occur in wine and practically how best to manage when encountered during the production process. It will also cover maturation techniques to promote wine preservation. 

 This course builds on the Principles of Winemaking course and is ideal for those with experience of winemaking or have a strong interest in wine chemistry and microbiology. 

English Wine & Tourism:

Level 5 / 15 Credits

This module will focus on the emergence of tourism as a key element of business strategy for both wine producers and their wider production communities and regions.
Students will study the history and recent developments in the field of oenotourism factoring in the importance of products and services offered, tourist consumer behaviour and establishing an effective cellar door. This will result in students identifying an issue impacting the tourism industry and making recommendations as to how to solve the problem identified.

A three-day intensive theory course with exam on the morning of the fourth day delivering an introduction to the world of wines. This course is designed for those with a keen interest in wine and other beverages, who wish to gain employment in drinks-related industries.