Florida International University - School of Hospitality and Tourism Management

Courses Offered and Course Description

HFT 3866
Wine Technology
Wine technology, merchandising, and marketing is a 3-credit course offered by the nationally recognized School of Hospitality and Tourism Management at Florida International University. Its purpose is to instruct future hotel, resort, and restaurant managers in the finer points of appreciating wine, its history and culture, and expose students to the many popular varieties coming from the great vineyards of the world. In each class, students learn to taste and evaluate selected wines. They learn the ways to procure, store, serve, and merchandise wine. This course enables future managers to train their staff in order to develop a feeling of confidence about presenting wine as well as learning the language of wine.

FIU provides two classes in wine merchandising: the entry level course is a 3 credit course offered during the day in the spring and fall semesters in Broward county, during the day in the summer semester in Dade county only, and on Wednesday evening in the spring and fall semesters in Dade county. The advanced class in the economics of wine is offered on the Dade campus only during the spring semester. Students must have successfully completed the entrance level class in order to continue on to this second class.

Biography

William Hebrank teaches the entrance level course. Mr. Hebrank was born in Champaign-Urbana Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois. He moved to Miami Florida in 1975. He is currently senior sales representative for a major wine wholesale company, Transatlantic Wine Suppliers, where he coordinates the distribution of wine from throughout the world for sale to hotels and restaurants throughout South Florida. In his job he regularly writes wine lists, trains staff, and travels all over the world investigating new and old wine growing regions. Within these past years he has visited California, Australia, Champagne and Bordeaux, Oregon, Washington and Canada, Southern Italy, Sicily and Tasmania, New Zealand.

Mr. Hebrank has stated that his objective is to select and upgrade the quality of wine inventories in Florida, as well as to educate, open international contacts with winemakers, and generally help restaurant, hotel and resort managers to showcase wine as art. This approach to the wine trade by Mr. Hebrank will help upgrade wine's image and enhance its place in the American lifestyle, its culture, and its place in the business world.

| Curriculum Vita |