Michael Cheatham is an independent wine educator and consultant who has a passion for wine. He earned a Business of Wine certificate from SDSU, but has decided to take more classes because as he says, “You can never learn too much.”
Because Cheatham is studying for the French Wine Scholar (FWS) credential and needed the knowledge for his own career, he decided to enroll in the Intensive French Wines class. He says, “I do consulting and tastings in the corporate environment and I use my knowledge of French wine all the time.” He also wanted to take the class Wine List Creation to “create and maintain a successful restaurant wine list.”
From both courses, Cheatham says his best takeaway was gaining new knowledge – he also praises the instructors. For one, he was very excited to meet wine instructor and well-known sommelier, Jesse Rodriguez. “He’s a very intense man and full of information. I felt honored to meet someone so successful in the wine industry, one who is thought of as highly as Jesse is,” he adds.
Cheatham has not only increased his wine knowledge base, he also says that he met his best friends in the industry, “I’m still very enthusiastic about the Business of Wine program at SDSU and recommend it all the time.”
