The Garage in Harvard Square is known for piercing parlors and Newbury Comics. But it’s also home to the Commonwealth Wine School, run by Cambridge’s Jessica Sculley. The school offers certification-level programs from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust, the Wine Scholar Guild, and the Society of Wine Educators for professionals and civilians.
Sculley, 48, reflects on her past as a teacher, artist, and wine connoisseur — and shares her favorite summertime sips. Tell me about your job. I’m the founder and director of Commonwealth Wine School.
Our physical location is in the Garage at Harvard Square — it’s in a funky building and a funky part of town. We look, I suppose, like the more serious group that’s there, but we try to have a really good time. Even though we’re called Commonwealth Wine School, we mostly teach about wine.
We also teach about beer and spirits and cocktails and sake and cider. We’re really here for either professionals in the industry who want to polish up or move their careers along and learn more, but also just enthusiasts: people who really like a glass of wine and want to know what they’re drinking. Advertisement What’s going on at The Garage, anyway? It was going to be renovated, right? COVID really did change everything, didn’t it? Trinity Property owns the garage.
We have a great relationship with them, and they’ve always been really open from the beginning, because I signed our lease moments before COVID happened. Initiall.