An Inquiry Into the Pedagogy of the Sensory Perception Tasting Component of Wine Courses in the Time of COVID-19

Abstract

In March 2020, universities switched to online learning in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of technology, asynchronous scheduling, and the semi-anonymous nature of online courses created challenges for engaging students and the teacher-student relationship. The problem was especially relevant for curricula with multisensory components like wine tasting. In Summer 2020, the BevEd SIG became a virtual faculty learning community of both experienced and novice beverage instructors. The group discussed their experiences and addressed the pedagogy, logistics, and potential problems of maintaining the sensory perception (seeing, smelling, and tasting) component as an integral part of wine courses regardless of the class format. The experiential learning of sensory perception as the skill of tasting and evaluating wine is also essential in the industry, including wineries, distributorships, wine sales, serving, bartending, and training. The evaluation of the challenges of teaching the sensory perception tasting component of wine courses during COVID-19 and the solutions developed by the BevEd SIG to address them can be considered best practices for wine course instruction and experiential training for staff and customer sales and events.