Why am I taking this class?

Growing up, wine has been an important part of my family traditions. I was born in Peru but my 4 grandparents are Italian and so we inherited the Italian culture of wine. Since I was a kid, my parents would add drips of wine to my glass of water and when I was old enough, I would have every meal with a glass of wine (until today). Without thinking too much about it, I continued to order a glass of wine whenever I would go out for lunch during work and was quite embarrased to receive the feedback that it was not OK in Peruvian culture to do this.

However, my love for wine comes along with ignorance about it. I never formally learned about the product or the industry. My learning of wine comes mainly through what my dad has told me and a few visits to wineries, but I want to expand this learning to appreciate more wine and to feed my curiosity.

In addition, I am working on a startup project for Startup Garage to introduce a new beverage in the US market: cactus water. I want to learn the dynamics of the wine industry to leverage learnings of marketing, branding, distribution, etc, to make more informed decisions for my team's cactus water.