Florida Wine Academy

• Best for: Students seeking WSET, Wine Scholar Guild, sake, and spirits education in South Florida.
• Main credentials: WSET, Wine Scholar Guild, Sake Sommelier Association.
• Format: In-person courses, private events, consulting, and selected institutional programs.
• Location: Palmetto Bay, Florida, within 305 Wines.
• Strength: Credentialed ownership, a physical teaching location, and a broad range of wine, sake, and spirits programming.
• Watch-out: The curriculum relies heavily on third-party certification frameworks, especially WSET.
• SOMM verdict: Florida Wine Academy is a strong regional option for South Florida students, especially those seeking structured certification courses, though it has not yet developed the depth of proprietary programming found at some longer-established wine schools.

About Florida Wine Academy

Florida Wine Academy offers wine, spirits, and sake education in South Florida. The school is an Approved Program Provider for WSET courses and also offers programs through the Wine Scholar Guild and the Sake Sommelier Association.

Its course catalog makes it useful for several types of students: beginners looking for a structured introduction, professionals seeking a credential, and enthusiasts interested in deeper study of wine regions, sake, or spirits.

Courses and Certifications

Florida Wine Academy’s core certification offerings are built around third-party credentialing bodies. These include WSET, the Wine Scholar Guild, and the Sake Sommelier Association.

That structure gives students access to widely recognized wine and sake credentials. It also means much of the school’s curriculum is defined by outside organizations rather than by Florida Wine Academy itself. For students who want a standardized credential path, that is an advantage. For students looking for a more independent or proprietary wine-school curriculum, it is a limitation.

Owners and Instructional Team

Florida Wine Academy’s Director of Wine Education is Alessandra Esteves. She is a Certified Educator and holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines and Spirits. She also holds the French Wine Scholar, Spanish Wine Scholar, and Champagne Master Level designations from the Wine Scholar Guild, the Master of Rioja DOCa certification, and the Certified Specialist of Wine credential. She is currently a Stage 2 candidate for the Master of Wine designation.

Before entering wine education, Esteves worked as a corporate attorney in Brazil, Germany, and Switzerland.

Florida Wine Academy was co-founded by Guilherme de Macedo, who also helps run the school. He holds the Master Sake Sommelier designation from the Sake Sommelier Association and was among the first people in the United States to earn that credential. At Florida Wine Academy, he oversees the sake education program, partnership development, back-office operations, and quality control.

Location and Format

Florida Wine Academy is located within 305 Wines in Palmetto Bay, a suburb of Miami. The classroom is set inside the wine shop, with seating for approximately 10 students around an extended dining-room-style table.

The school was previously located in the SunTrust International Center in downtown Miami. Its current location inside a retail wine shop gives the academy a practical advantage: students are learning in a working wine environment with access to a curated selection of bottles.

305 Wines opened in 2019 and offers a broad selection, including wines from Switzerland, Armenia, and Lebanon, along with a notable sake selection. The connection between the retail shop and the school gives Florida Wine Academy a useful commercial and educational foundation.

Accreditation, Licensing, and Recognition

The Commission for Independent Education, part of the Florida Department of Education, has approval and licensing authority over independent postsecondary institutions in Florida. The state maintains an online database of approved schools. Florida Wine Academy does not appear in that database.

A follow-up call confirmed that Florida Wine Academy is not recognized as a licensed wine school by the State of Florida. This is common among WSET Approved Program Providers, which may offer WSET courses without operating as state-licensed postsecondary schools.

Students should understand the distinction: Florida Wine Academy offers courses through recognized credentialing organizations, but the academy itself does not appear to be licensed as an independent postsecondary school in Florida.

Institutional Partnerships

In February 2026, Florida Wine Academy announced a partnership with Florida International University to offer WSET certification courses at FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality & Tourism Management.

That partnership is a meaningful marker of credibility. It gives Florida Wine Academy a stronger institutional presence and expands its reach beyond its retail-school location in Palmetto Bay.

Consulting and Private Events

Florida Wine Academy also offers services beyond certification courses.

For restaurants, bars, and retailers, the academy provides consulting and on-site training. Services include wine-list design, food-and-wine pairing support, wine handling, wine service training, cellar management, fine-and-rare wine buying advice, and auction representation for private collectors.

The school also hosts corporate events, seminars, and educational tastings. Original programming includes Grape to Glass, the Lab Series, and a Bordeaux Masterclass. Florida Wine Academy also brings in outside educators for selected programs, including Master of Rioja DOCa and WSET Level 1 in Sake.

Student Reviews and Reputation

For a relatively new wine school, Florida Wine Academy has a solid review footprint. As of this writing, the school has a small number of Yelp reviews and roughly two dozen Google reviews, nearly all positive. Reader feedback follows a similar pattern, with approximately 20 positive comments and one negative comment.

The positive feedback tends to focus on the quality of instruction, the professionalism of the ownership team, and the value of having a physical wine-school environment in South Florida.

Strengths and Limitations

Florida Wine Academy’s main strengths are its credentialed ownership team, dedicated physical location, broad certification offerings, and integration with a serious retail wine shop. Its sake programming is also a differentiator, especially in a market where sake education is often limited.

The limitations are equally clear. The school’s curriculum depends heavily on third-party frameworks, especially WSET. Its classroom capacity is small, and its proprietary course development appears limited compared with larger or longer-established wine schools.

Schools such as Napa Valley Wine Academy and the Wine School of Philadelphia offer more extensive independent curricula by comparison. Florida Wine Academy is a strong regional provider, but it is still building toward the depth and scale of more established institutions.

SOMM Verdict

Florida Wine Academy is one of the stronger wine-education options in South Florida. It is best suited for students who want structured WSET, Wine Scholar Guild, sake, or spirits education in a small, in-person setting.

Its strengths are practical and real: qualified instructors, a physical teaching location, a serious wine-shop environment, and growing institutional partnerships. Its main limitation is that much of the curriculum comes from outside credentialing bodies rather than from Florida Wine Academy’s own independent educational framework.

For South Florida students seeking recognized wine and sake credentials, Florida Wine Academy is a credible regional choice.