Wine School of Philadelphia returns focus to classroom following 'huge' courtroom win
Founder Keith Wallace said he was "blindsided" by a lawsuit that he "actively worked to make sure" didn't happen.
Things, for the most part, have settled back into a routine at the Wine School of Philadelphia following a winter and spring that brought significant coverage to a lawsuit from the city’s other prominent wine educator.
Registration has begun for its upcoming courses, including the Accelerated Sommelier Course (summer) that begins on Aug. 17 (followed by an instructor certification the week after), with Its core sommelier course (fall semester) set to take place on Sundays in October and November, plus tasting classes that dot the schedule into the new year. The Wine School of Philadelphia, an independent wine education institution founded by Keith Wallace in 2001, is located at 109 S. 22nd St.
It has been back to business since May 26, when a federal judge denied an emergency legal effort to force the Wine School of Philadelphia to stop using the name “Philly Wine School,” a name the court found has been publicly associated with the school since at least 2005. Judge Joshua D. Wolson of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued the 36-page ruling, denying a motion for preliminary injunction filed by PhillyWine LLC, a local provider of Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses.
Following the ruling, Wallace wrote a statement in his newsletter, saying he felt “vindicated” by the ruling, adding that “the court has now rejected the attempt to stop us from using a name by which students, media, and the public have known us for many years.”
While the dispute festered for years and then gained momentum (and eventually public scrutiny) for around 18 months, Wallace told the Wine Classroom in a late June interview that he was “blindsided” by the lawsuit, “because I actively worked to make sure it didn’t happen.
“Look, It’s been clear for over a decade, and actually their own lawsuit actually acknowledged that several of them have been actively working to discredit my school for at least a decade, that’s directly from their own filings. So we never just badmouthed them. We always kept our distance. … We’ve been both been around for 20 years. It takes a little bit of work not to get angry with somebody who’s actively trying to screw with you, but, but I’ve run a business for a long time, and the rule of thumb is, you don’t want to sue anybody, because you‘re never going to resolve anything. Ever.
“Especially, you know, we’re not talking about multimillion dollar companies here We’re talking about two companies that maybe on a good year might pull in a half a million dollars, at most.”
Both businesses have been around for several decades, with Neal Ewing’s Wine Services becoming a WSET-approved program provider in 1999 and the Wine School of Philadelphia opening two years later. At some point, friction developed between the two schools, but they continued to co-exist without any legal entanglements for several decades. Both have seen graduates go on to become sommeliers, winemakers, and industry leaders, including in the regional wine industry.
In 2022, Ewing retired, and Noelle Allen and Dr. Matt Kirkland took over the business associated with Ewing’s WSET program. Allen is a former Wine School of Philadelphia student and event planner.
Wallace runs the Wine School of Philadelphia with his wife, Alana Zerbe.
Their dispute on the Wine School’s use of Philly Wine School spilled into the courtroom and the media in December 2025. Per a Philadelphia Inquirer story, Wallace obtained a trademark for the name “Philly Wine School,” which court records show he used to help suspend PhillyWine’s Instagram account while attempting to take down its website. PhillyWine countered with its lawsuit in February 2026, alleging Wallace and Zerbe “made it their mission to destroy” PhillyWine “by attempting to erase its existence” from the internet.
The lawsuit contended that the fight over the “Philly Wine School” name had severely crimped its ability to communicate with students, with Kirkland noting that the attendance and enrollment at PhillyWine — which has found a permanent home at Rittenhouse Square’s Fitler Club — has been below average since December, the Inquirer reported.
“I think there needs to be clarity in naming and clarity for students so they sign up for the classes they think they’re signing up for,” Kirkland said in February. He offered the Inquirer no comment on the ruling.
In addition to courses it lists on its fall schedule at the Fitler Club, PhillyWine holds a number of online classes and several in-person and hybrid classes, including at Drexel, Northampton Community College and Delaware County Community College.
The Wine School of Philadelphia uses one full-timer (Zerbe, the director of wine education) and two part-timers instructors for its variety of classes, which includes online and in person sommelier courses.
Wallace said the school canceled one semester of its academic programs for sommeliers, partly to shield students from the controversy but also due to the fallout from the lawsuit itself. After The Philadelphia Inquirer reported on the lawsuit, enrollment for the following semester was about 50% below the school’s typical level, he said.
While a couple of students left the program because of the lawsuit, Wallace said that overall the support they’ve gotten has been “fantastic.”
What’s next is anyone’s guess. A recent summation on the National Wine School website said that the “case may continue,” adding that the “ruling is an important public development in the case.”
Meanwhile, Wallace called it “huge win” and said during the June interview that the ruling is “basically saying that nothing of their case likely will succeed in a trial. So they got knocked completely down. But now they just appealed it.
“They’re going to keep going,” he added. “It may be another two or three years of court, despite the [ruling] that they have no case.”
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