Of course you do and the obvious place to learn about Bordeaux wine is in Bordeaux, at the Bordeaux Wine School. But if you can’t get to the Bordeaux Wine School, the Bordeaux Wine School can come to you.

Since 1990 The School has been teaching consumers, distributors, sommeliers, in fact anyone with an interest, professional or otherwise in Bordeaux wine. As part of the CIVB (Conseil Interprofessional des Vins de Bordeaux) or Bordeaux Wine Council, their objective is to teach an up to date vision of Bordeaux wines, breaking some of the out-dated myths surrounding the region and presenting the dynamism of the wine makers to wine enthusiasts and professionals. This is done via a range of training programmes from 2 hours to several weeks.

Over 200,000 people have followed the Bordeaux Wine School programmes world wide since its creation and last year 48 000 of them did so outside of Bordeaux. This is thanks to a network of over 200 certified Bordeaux wine Educators and 40 partner wine schools both public and private. The schools include leading hotel schools such as Cornell and Johnson and Wales in the US, AWSEC, IVE and ASC in Asia as well as many other WSET programme providers worldwide.

These tutors have been selected as wine experts in their own field and country and after an intensive training in Bordeaux have successfully passed a exam certifying them as an accredited tutor. You can download the list of accredited tutors here to find out where you can take Bordeaux wine classes with a certified Educator near you.

If you prefer learning at home there are so many books about Bordeaux to help and new ones appear on the shelf every year. Here are a few of my favorites perhaps as late Christmas presents for enthusiasts; Oz Clarke’s Bordeaux, is a great introduction to Bordeaux, covering the whole of Bordeaux not just the famous names. The Finest Wines of Bordeaux: A Regional Guide to the Best Chateaux and Their Wines by James Lawther is another good read and James also wrote the excellent Heart of Bordeaux about the all too often-overlooked Pessac Leognan appellation. On the subject individual appellations Neal Martin’s recently published Pomerol is a seminal work on this small but fascination appellation.

If you like history, 1855, A history of the Bordeaux Classification by Dewey Markham Jr remains the go-to guide for understanding why and how the famous 1855 classification came into being and also on this subject, if you want to understand the history of the top 5 growths of this classification, Bordeaux Legends by Jane Anson (also a certified Bordeaux educator) gives an intimate account of each of the properties.

The new edition of the ‘Feret’ The Bordeaux Bible has just been published. It lists in detail all the chateaux, growers and negociants of the region – a really useful guide, especially to some of the lesser-known properties of Bordeaux and a great tool for those of you looking for information about the wines you are tasting.

The web can help too. www.bordeaux.com is, of course, a great source of information and another of the Bordeaux Wine School partners; Berry Brothers and Rudd has excellent education content on its website where you can also purchase the wines of course.

And then there are wine apps, of which there are many. One, Smart Bordeaux, helps explain what is behind the label, an issue some consumers struggle with. The lack of blend information for example can be confusing if you don’t know much about Bordeaux appellations (the education above will of course help with that!). If you can’t remember your Saint Emilion from your Saint Julien blends for example download the Smart Bordeaux app and by taking a photo of the label on the bottle of Bordeaux in front of you all should be revealed.

The best way to learn of course is with a glass of Bordeaux in your hand, so enjoy your homework!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.