Wine professionals and consumers alike will gain an insight into the inner workings of the wine business in a new hands-on course, Beverage Management: Sales, Service, and Buying Strategies for Hospitality Professionals. Offered this spring by the NYU School of Professional Studies Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism, the course provides the foundational skills and knowledge necessary to successfully run a wine program.

This 10-week program, developed with American Sommelier, a leading educational organization for wine-industry professionals and consumers, will introduce students to core concepts related to service, financials, inventory, communication, and suppliers. Students will learn how to perform basic table service; decant wine; use a variety of sommelier tools including an Ah-so and Durand; develop a wine list from start to finish; price products appropriately and understand wine program budgeting; and negotiate supplier relationships effectively. The course will run on Tuesdays, March 3 to May 5, from 6:20 p.m. to 8:50 p.m. at the School's Midtown Center, 11 West 42nd St.

The new course is taught by Andrew Bell, president and cofounder of New York-based American Sommelier. Bell opened a wine shop in Paris in 1992, started his Paris-based education toward becoming a Sommelier, and then joined the two-star Michelin team at Restaurant Guy Savoy. His passion for wine led him to start American Sommelier, where he helped to produce the "Best Sommelier in America" competition. He created the curriculum for the blind tasting course in 2004 as well as reorganized the classes to be more user-friendly. He has trained thousands of sommeliers in the United States.

Beverage Management: Sales, Service, and Buying Strategies for Hospitality Professionals is part of a new Certificate in Restaurant Entrepreneurship to be launched in Summer 2015 by the School's Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism. Other courses will include Global Trends in Food, Beverage, and Restaurants; Restaurant Budgeting and Cost Controls; and Restaurant Layout Design.

"As beverage programs serve both to drive guest satisfaction and a dining operation's bottom line, we are delighted to add this course to our upcoming Restaurant Entrepreneurship Certificate and to work with the leading organization in wine education, American Sommelier, to craft an exceptional learning opportunity for our students," said Donna Quadri-Felitti, clinical associate professor and academic chair of the School's hospitality and tourism programs. She added, "This new course and others in the Certificate address the legal and financial acumen fundamental to success as well as remaining relevant to consumer trends."

For more information, visit sps.nyu.edu/tisch/noncredit, e-mail [email protected], or call 212-998-9100.

About the NYU SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality

The NYU School of Professional Studies Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, now celebrating 25 years of academic excellence, is a leading center for the study of hospitality, travel, and tourism. Founded in 1995, the Tisch Center was established in response to the growing need for hospitality and tourism undergraduate and graduate education. Its cutting-edge curricula attract bright, motivated students who seek to become leaders in their fields.

Through its undergraduate degree in hotel and tourism management, its graduate degrees in hospitality industry studies, tourism management, and event management; a plethora of Professional Pathways programs; and its world-renowned hospitality investment conference, students gain the knowledge and the skill sets that enable them to manage change, to communicate, to thrive in complex work environments, and to advance the businesses of hospitality, travel, and tourism. The Tisch Center recently launched the Hospitality Innovation Hub (HI Hub), which will foster entrepreneurship and creative solutions for the industries it serves. The state-of-the-art facilities offer students, start-ups, established industry partners, and investors opportunities to learn, discover, innovate, and invest.

For more information about the NYU SPS Jonathan M. Tisch Center of Hospitality, visit sps.nyu.edu/tisch.

Cheryl Feliciano
212-992-9103
NYU