Wine School of Philadelphia reports enrollment growth, plans staff expansion

The Wine School of Philadelphia announced something last week that’s at least slightly surprising to those familiar with what’s going on in the industry.

Consumption is down, and business at many restaurants and wineries has been slackening over the last few years.

Against the backdrop, the school announced this week that it was planning to hire multiple instructors as, according to its press release, “enrollment growth and structural changes to its semester-based programs increase demand for instructional capacity. The hiring reflects a deliberate expansion of the school’s teaching staff as it prepares for an upcoming semester built around longer-format, integrated coursework.”

Unlike short-term classes or one-off workshops, the release said, the semester model emphasizes cumulative learning, assessment, and continuity—placing greater demands on instructional staffing.

Keith Wallace provided some background to the initiative at the school that he founded in 2001 as an experimental concept in a Manayunk coffee shop.

Since then, the former winemaker and wine educator has seen it evolve into a top-tier, independently owned institution for wine education in the country, while finding a home at 109 S. 22nd St., in Philly’s Rittenhouse Square.

Asked for some perspective on the decision to add instructors, Wallace told PennLive that “despite the near-term chop, I think the smart money is still moving into wine. The correction is real, but the longer-term constraint is talent — trained people who can sell, serve, and communicate value in a tighter market. A lot of the pain right now is concentrated where companies leaned hardest into value-volume assumptions while adjacent categories (RTDs, seltzers, etc.) kept siphoning that consumer.”

Wallace said that the school is seeing these three clear profiles in its recent classes:

• First: corporate professionals pivoting into wine — including an early wave of “AI refugees” who want a people-forward field where judgment and taste still matter.
• Second: late-20s and early-30s who want trade credentials and a practical on-ramp that’s faster and cheaper than another degree.
• Third: high-income professionals looking for a serious second act — oddly, we’ve had a noticeable run of dentists and dental surgeons recently — people who want wine as a new professional identity, not just a hobby.

He also offered some enrollment data over the past two decades, at least for the Core Sommelier program, which it defines as an integrated wine education built for career changers, working professionals, and serious students who want real authority in wine.

• 2005: 2 semesters/year, with 16 students per semester
• 2015: 3 semesters/year, with 20 students per semester
• 2025: 4 semesters/year, with 24 students per semester, plus the Core online track (roughly with 10 students per quarter). Separately, he added, the school now runs six semesters for its Advanced Sommelier programs, and we’ve also seen hundreds of students take the preliminary Level One program (many of whom later step into Core).

As for where they are headed after they are finished, Wallace said the destinations vary. Some, he said, are aiming for full-time transitions into hospitality, retail, distribution, or supplier roles, while others are building their credentials to work part-time.

“Especially people with an existing career who want a structured path into wine,” he said. “The key is that the market is becoming less forgiving: The people who succeed will be the ones with real fluency, not just enthusiasm.”

Wallace said that while some are working for the Pa. Liquor Control Board (PLCB) in higher-level positions, most are in private industry, with a lot in the winery sector.

“For instance, almost every employee at Cellar Beast (a winery in Andreas, Schuylkill County) is one of our grads, including the winemaker and one of the owners, and that’s true in many places,” he said. “In wine retail, for instance, the founder of Wine Works in Marlton, New Jersey, is a graduate of the wine school. Even into wine writing, with folks like Jason Wilson and Lynn Hoffman (RIP), not only were they trained by us, but were also working as teachers here.”

Neil Ross, the director of operations for the Vernick Restaurant Group, is one of the wine school’s grads, and others have found management positions in Stephen Starr’s restaurants, Wallace said.

Others have started their own wineries, including Miguel and Barbara Lecuona (Siboney Cellars, Texas) and Jenny Shultz (Jolie-Laide, California).

Demand has also climbed, he said, in the school’s public tasting classes and membership program. To meet that demand without lowering standards, the school is planning to add up to eight part-time instructors by 2027 while building a more formal instructor training pathway to support consistency.

“We’ve already had to cancel a few planned programs simply because we didn’t have the teaching capacity to deliver them at the level we expect,” he said.