Is Traverse City Becoming A Wine Education Hub?

Today, northern Michigan is a bona-fide wine region. Roughly 40 wineries call the Traverse City area home, from the hills and valleys of Old Mission Peninsula to the wide-open expanses of Leelanau County, and many of the region’s wines have won awards and acclaim at major wine shows across the country and around the world. Until recently, though, at least one aspect of the local wine scene was lagging behind: wine education. That’s about to change, thanks to a brand-new new business that will offer a globally-recognized wine credential right here in Traverse City.

McKenzie Gallagher, co-owner of Rove Estate, and Heather Durham-Birley, a Traverse City-based wine sales representative with Vintage Wine Company (a wine distributor), have banded together to launch Traverse Wine Institute. Described by the founders as a “wine school,” the new business has set up shop at 20Fathoms with plans to start offering wine courses there starting in May. Specifically, Gallagher and Durham-Birley are bringing Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) certifications to Traverse City – a type of wine industry credential that Durham-Birley calls “a globally-approved program.”

“WSET is headquartered in London, but they’re in Hong Kong, they’re in Japan, they’re everywhere; you can take it in all different languages,” Durham-Birley explains. “Many employers, when you’re applying for jobs in the wine world, will ask if you have your WSET qualifications.”

While northern Michigan is home to many wineries, it has not, until now, had any nearby WSET offerings. Durham-Birley, a Traverse City native, started her WSET coursework while working in Europe, and only realized after she moved home that she couldn’t easily continue the credentialing process locally.

“When I moved back here, the closest offerings for WSET qualifications were Chicago and Detroit,” Durham-Birley tells The Ticker. “I could take the courses virtually, but I like to learn in person; I like to learn about wine through tasting, in a group kind of setting. And so, I just thought there was a need for this here. As we’re starting to really build our wine region, I think having a foundation of education will help us grow more. And then when all the wine experts start flooding into Traverse City to taste our wines, we will all know exactly what we’re talking about, and what makes us special here.”

Durham-Birley and Gallagher have been working to bring WSET to Traverse City for the better part of four years. The two met in 2019, when Durham-Birley came to work for Gallagher at Rove – eventually serving as the winery’s manager of operations and director of wine education. At the time, Durham-Birley was still in the early stages of the WSET certification process, which includes four levels. Today, she’s nearing the end of Level 4 – a two-year program that WSET calls the “diploma,” and the most advanced program WSET offers. Soon, she’ll be teaching the WSET curriculum to the next generation of wine experts.

For Gallagher, the idea of partnering with Durham-Birley to open a wine school was appealing not just because it would provide a new avenue for her employers to level up their knowledge about wine. While Traverse Wine Institute will be catering toward local wineries and their employees in particular, offering WSET course discounts to all wineries involved in the Traverse Wine Coast group, Gallagher is also confident that the appeal of the classes will extend beyond those who already make their living in wine.

“In the tasting room. across the bar, we’ve noticed customers wanting to learn more about wine than a basic tasting would provide,” Gallagher explains. “They just kept asking about [wine education], and initially I thought, ‘Ok, let’s do a workshop.’ But the beauty of the WSET is that it’s a standard. If you get your Level 2 in Traverse City, you can go anywhere with that. So, maybe a customer is just thinking, ‘Oh, I like wine and I want to learn more about it,’ and that’s great. But that’s also how most people enter the wine industry, is just through that kind of passion or curiosity. So, if a customer were to take this course and then decide they want to be a part of the winery world in a professional capacity, that [WSET] badge is very helpful, because it’s recognized everywhere and it holds weight.”

The pathway Gallagher is talking about – from curious wine enthusiast to wine professional – is precisely the route Durham-Birley took into the industry. As such, she’s cognizant of the talent recruitment potential of having high-level wine learning opportunities in TC.

“When I started doing classes with WSET, I was not planning on being in the wine industry,” she explains. “I was thinking, ‘I just really love wine; I want to taste more varieties; I want to learn about wine from around the world.’ So I took the Level 1, and my passion grew through learning. And then before long, I was saying, ‘No, this needs to be my career.’ So the WSET is definitely a gateway, and that’s beneficial for our wine region because it’s a growing industry up here and there are a lot of jobs.”

To start, Traverse Wine Institute will be offering just the first two levels of WSET. Level 1, which is open to participants with any level of wine knowledge, is a one-day course intensive and will be offered on May 13 and June 3 from 9am-5pm. Level 2, meanwhile, is available as both a three-day intensive and an eight-week evening course, with the intensive planned for May 23-25 and the eight-week course taking place on eight consecutive Monday evenings starting May 15. More details about dates, registration, cost, course formats, and exams can be found on the Traverse Wine Institute.

In addition to WSET, Gallagher and Durham-Birley are planning to host several less formal wine education offerings in their 20Fathoms space, including blind tastings and wine masterclasses.

The Traverse Wine Institute courses are part of a growing push to make northern Michigan a hub of wine education, scholarship, and expertise. Last year, Amanda Danielson of Trattoria Stella teamed up with Michigan State University Extension to launch a wine conference, called Dirt to Glass, focused on “the highest international standards of viticulture and winemaking” and hosted right here in Traverse City. Dirt to Glass will return to northern Michigan for a second annual conference this August, offering “advanced, practical information and tools” to help grape growers and wine producers “elevate their craft and stay ahead of industry trends.”

Danielson describes Dirt to Glass as “an invaluable learning opportunity for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of the relationship between good farming and world class wine, and say she hopes it will “inspire growers and producers by exposing the quality potential of Michigan through the exploration of wines from world regions of a similar age.”