Certified Wine Educator, A Worthy Pursuit. The CWE, Is it for Me?
The Certified Wine Educator (CWE) is the Society of Wine Educators’ highest certification and is highly regarded in the wine industry. This certification not only validates a candidate’s wine knowledge, as do many other credentials out there, but also validates one’s ability to clearly and effectively communicate about wine. This multi-pronged exam, which includes theory, blind tasting and presentation components, can admittedly be a daunting task to undertake, but, with careful study, it can be achieved. As Andrew Carnegie once said, “Anything in life worth having is worth working for.”
Wine Educator and Armagnac Ambassador, May Matta-Aliah, DWS, CWE, FWS, earned her CWE in 2001, winning the Banfi Award in the process...
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Women in Wine: May Matta Aliah- Armagnac Ambassador, French Wine Expert, Graphic Designer
Excerpted from: avvinare A wine blog by Susannah Gold
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have begun to interview women who work in the wine business in the United States as well. One of the people who was nice enough to have a chat with me about her work in wine was May Matta Aliah, owner of Red Dot Solutions. I met May some years ago when she taught a class on Sherry at the International Wine Center (IWC) as part of the WSET Diploma program. I later discovered that May was not only a wine educator but also a fabulous graphic designer. This is a very long post without photos but I haven’t yet been either to Armagnac or Lebanon and have no nice photos to share. Must remedy that...
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Thank you for being such a knowledgeable, organized and passionate teacher.
Viviane Bauquet Farre, blog: food & style
May Matta-Aliah, D.W.S. has been an instructor of wine classes at the International Wine Center for 10 years. She has been a dedicated, and popular teacher with excellent evaluations from her classes and high test scores. We are delighted to have May as part of our teaching staff.
Linda Lawry DWS, Director, International Wine Center
Thank you May for making our event such a success! Everyone raved about the wines you chose and relished having the opportunity to talk to you one-on-one about everything wine. I appreciate all the extra effort you put into the event, it's obvious this is your passion and you're DARN good at it too! Without you, it would have been just another "cocktail party" but you made it special and I thank you.
Majed Aliah, Land Rover Cape Fear
It was really nice taking the International Wine Center's WSET Intermediate Class with May! She is so knowledgeable yet able to relate information in a very accessible way.
Bonnie Laflamme
I love the honest and intelligent way that May speaks about Armagnac. She is respectful and easy to approach about all things Armagnac. We really appreciated her dedicated efforts.
Tara Mathison, Wine & Spirits Consultant, Heights Chateau
May's wine tasting was the perfect start to my 40th birthday celebration! She consulted with me to find out what level of knowledge my guests had about wine, and what kinds of wines I liked. We then settled on a tasting of reds and whites from lesser known regions and grapes. Not only did we all learn a lot but we had a great time along the way. My friends were talking about the night for weeks.
Andrew Berg
May's Armagnac Seminar exceeded our expectations. Everything was covered in great detail and with enthusiasm.
Vanessa Conlin, Wine Buyer, Harlem Vintage
May was very thorough with her explanations. Where the staff was not very educated in Armagnac they now have a great foundation in Armagnac, its history and production.
Joseph Opalka, Buyer, Westchester Wine Warehouse
Thank you for teaching the class so well (it was both informative and fun)!