Wine Theory & Southern wine academy

Dinner Parties or Personalized Private Tastings that cater to the individual needs of you and your guests using wines from your collection or sourcing wine from local retail shops. With advanced notice, special wines can be ordered.

Dinner Parties

focused on...

pairing the perfect wines for a dinner party with your friends

a range of opportunities from simply selecting wines to pair with your dinner to turning your party into a unique and educational experience for your guests

cost to be determined based on individual needs, budget, style of event, and sourcing of wines

Private Tastings

Introduction to Wine

focused on...

the language, general production techniques, and styles of wine

wine grapes and how to read a wine list

comparison, discussion, and tastings of the most frequent wine styles

Personalized Tastings

focused on...

a more in depth introduction to specific wines or wine regions with a tasting of 4-6 wines

Choose from themes such as Champagne, Burgundy, Old World vs. New World, a Deep Dive into France, Italy, California, Bordeaux or come up with your own!

2 hour event, planning meeting, purchase of wines (does not include cost of wine), pre-arrival set-up and materials

Click here for an additional list of possible themes

Collectors' Series

focused on...

the most sought after, age-worthy, high-end fine wines

a small, exclusive, guided tasting focusing on specific themes for those who are building or expanding a wine collection or who are searching for wines from a specific vintage for a birthday or anniversary celebration

2 hour event, planning meeting, purchase of wines (does not include cost of wine), pre-arrival set-up and materials. An additional fee will be added to wines brought in from other wine markets.

Click here for a list of Collectors' Series Ideas

With over 15 years traveling to wine regions around the world, their love of wine, and 7 years building Wine Theory, Ryan and Leah bring unique wines, wine education and private tasting opportunities to Chattanooga. Having visited with producers in Spain, Germany, Portugal, the UK, the US, Hungary, Morocco as well as most wine regions in France, they gained an understanding that one can never learn all there is to know about wine. This passion for travel, wine and learning led them to start their own wine business in 2015. Ryan still leads Wine Theory today and has grown their business to cover multiple states across the Southeast representing some of the finest small production wines in the area. This same passion led Leah to spend the summer of 2018 at a small domaine in Champagne where she worked in the vineyards, winery, and cellar, and attended sales calls in Paris and other cities in Northeastern France. Since that time she has obtained a Master-Level certification in Champagne as well as her WSET Diploma; the last stop before tackling the most challenging and highest wine educational program in the world, Master of Wine. Ryan is a certified Specialist of American Wines.

Leah and Ryan have been married 20+ years and live on Signal Mountain with their dog, Zalto.