Interview with Chris Martin MW, WSG’s new Director of Education

Chris Martin MW joins the Wine Scholar Guild as our new Director of Education. Simon J Woolf spoke to him about his background and what he’ll be bringing to the role.

There’s an assumption in the wine world that if you’re knowledgeable in your subject area, ergo you can teach. Chris Martin MW wants to challenge that idea. Unusually for the sector, he started out in the world of education and latterly cross-trained in wine.

Just like WSG, Chris has a transatlantic connection. He’s half American half British, born in Scotland but mostly raised in the United States. He initially studied Philosophy and German, before moving to Vienna in 2005 where his pedagogical career began with teaching English as a foreign language. Did he fall in love with Austrian wine too? “Well, I was a student so I didn’t have much money for wine. But I certainly drank a lot of Grüner Veltliner and Zweigelt!” he says.

Nonetheless, Chris always had an interest in wine. He began studying for WSET qualifications in 2012 and, shortly after passing his Diploma in 2016, landed a job on the business side of the organisation. It began as a kind of fascination with the idea of wine education. Chris remembers thinking “This is exciting that this actually exists”. He added “I knew there were books and magazines and courses about winemaking, but not in the sense of appreciating wine.”

However, as his role developed at WSET, it became clear that there was plenty of room for improvement in the world of wine education. Coming from a pedagogical background, Chris could see there wasn’t a great deal of solid theory in the sector. “There have been studies on things like ‘does wine education help increase sales’, but nothing on what actually underpins it all” he say. “Wine is particularly guilty of the ‘if you know a lot about it, then you can teach it’ adage” he says. But in reality, being a good educator involves a great deal more than just subject matter expertise. Chris provides some examples: “How do you make it engaging, how do you ensure that students retain what they’ve been taught?”. He outlines the problem: “wine is fun, wine is social, wine is alcohol. All of these things have fogged the wine education space.”

As he progressed into the Master of Wine programme, Chris decided to tackle these issues head on in his dissertation which is titled Developing effective wine educators: Integrating the theory of pedagogical content knowledge into wine educator train-the-trainer programmes. It built on his work at WSET, where his role had changed to Head of Educator Development. He looks in detail at how sound pedagogical methodologies can be applied to wine education, and specifically how trainers can be trained to be world class teachers – not just human encyclopedias regurgitating facts.

After eight years of working in wine education, with experience as both student and trainer, I wondered what changes Chris has seen over that period. “Students have become more sophisticated, more aware.” he told me. “People are approaching wine slightly differently, they want to know what it can tell us about environmental or cultural factors”. The wine landscape has also become far more varied and complex, making it more challenging to apply hard and fast rules about varietal or regional typicity. Chris explains “you learn that Sancerre is supposed to taste a certain way. But nowadays there are Sancerres with 14.5% alcohol and an oily texture”.

That said, Chris still feels there is a place for general wine programmes such as those offered by WSET . “They’re very good at building the foundation and setting a benchmark” he explains, “but then an organisation like WSG is better at looking at the niches and the nuances”. Chris is particularly excited to be working on WSG’s forthcoming Tasting Program, which he sees as the perfect response to students' needs to get beyond the idea of medium+ acidity or medium tannins. The Tasting Program encourages students to view tasting as an holistic process, where concepts such as sense of place, profundity and uniqueness are more revered than typicity or adherence to the formula defined by an appellation. It is underpinned by the neuroscience of tasting, and a qualitative approach based on texture and mouthfeel. We discuss briefly how it could potentially attract students who may have felt disenfranchised by the more mainstream or commercial thrust of programs offered by other providers. Chris also wants to focus on WSG’s brand new Essentials Programs, which he sees as vital in beginning a student’s educational journey as they hopefully then progress to higher and more specialised levels.

He sees WSG not as a competitor to other program providers, but rather as an organisation that can provide a more niche offering. WSG allows students to dive deeply into areas that might interest them – such as Champagne, Bourgogne or the wines of Germany. Unsurprisingly given his track record, he’s also keen to focus on providing even more support for WSG’s wine school partners, ensuring that the “train the trainer” programs are continually advancing and teasing in some of the pedagogical theory that has previously been lacking across the sector.

It’s clear that Chris is looking for that perfect balance between rigorous educational practice and the flexibility to respond to today’s changing and broadening wine world. He says “whether it’s philosophy, art or wine, you need to learn about the rules before you break the rules”, adding that his learning from philosophy is that “the more you understand the theory, the more you appreciate the practice”. The goal is to empower students with the vocabulary they need to describe wine, without being too regimented about it.

With all this talk of wine, I wonder what’s currently in Chris’s glass? “I go through phases” he says, “and currently I’m going through a Syrah phase. I was with my friend in South Africa, who’s a wine buyer, and we started comparing things like Côte Rotie with some of the Shiraz coming out of Swartland”. Judging by the smile on his face when we discuss these fascinating comparisons, Chris has found the sweet spot in his career. He doesn’t disagree, saying simply “I love education and I love wine -  and now they are intertwined.”