Belfast's Direct Wine Shipments to launch wine academy

By Gemma McKenna

Published: 26 February, 2014

Belfast's Direct Wine Shipments is launching an academy to boost wine knowledge in the local hospitality industry, which is seen as vital to enhancing the region's gowing tourism market.

Belfast's Direct Wine Shipments is launching an academy to boost wine knowledge in the local hospitality industry, which is seen as vital to enhancing the region's growing tourism market.

Direct Wine Shipments, which celebrates its 60^th anniversary this year, operates a store in the city centre - where the academy will also be housed - as well as a fast-growing wholesale business McAlindon Wines. The McAlindon family also own a vineyard in Priorat, Catalunya, where they make their own wine Creu Celta.

Director Neal McAlindon, who along with his brother Peter, runs the business, told Harpers that the company has long believed in wine education. The new academy will operate in partnership with a local further education college, which has received funding from the Northern Irish Assembly in a bid to boost tourism.

"We were the first ones [in the island of Ireland] to educate our staff to WSET level - 50% of the workforce has the diploma. We were also first to bring over winemakers and to do wine dinners with chefs."

Neal added that it had helped to build a community on social network sites, as well as the 5,000 people it has on its customer database. "That has really helped grow our restaurant business."

Peter McAlindon said: "What we've been working on for the past year is Direct Wine Shipments Wine Academy. The first course will start at the end of March. We've partnered with a further education college in Northern Ireland and we're working with Peter Morris Wilson, who lectures in Dublin, and the Northern Irish Assembly who will provide funding to the college for promoting education within hospitality."

The group plans to offer WSET Levels 1 and 2 in the first year, with Level 3 coming on stream the following year. It will have special rates for restaurants.

"It builds on our heritage as a pioneer of wine education in Ireland - the WSET didn't exist in the Republic of Ireland until the 1990s," said Peter.

Education is an important element of DWS's business now, and it sells tickets to events online through its website. Recent events, with capacity for 100 people, have sold out. Many customers now buy tickets as gifts.

As Peter McAlindon pointed out: "The interesting thing is that we had 120 people for our Spanish tasting and two thirds of them had never been to our shop before. The more people pass through the shop on the way to an event, the more time, and money, they spend there."

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