WSET Educator Top-Up Course

I just passed what I hope is the last ever exam I have to endure. Last November, I took the WSET Educator course, an intensive four-day assessment gearing me and my fellow students to becoming WSET Certified Educators. It was a course that shed a lot of light on what the WSET expect from their students, as well as educators, and definitely helped make me a better teacher.

As I still had one Diploma exam to take at the time, I wasn't able to complete the course fully. Last week, I spent a morning in San Francisco with two recent Diploma graduates, coincidentally both from Canada. Our mission was to prove that we were able to teach WSET Level 3, both the theory and the tasting, a mission complicated by the fact that Level 3 is quite different from what it used to be.

teaching the new Level 3

As I've previously written, the WSET have overhauled the Level 3 course and exam. I think for the better - the teaching is more interactive, and both theory and tasting are designed to get students really thinking about why a wine tastes like it does. However, for those educators long used to the old Level 3 the change has been difficult.

My fellow educators and I were asked to prepare a Level 3 class (in my case, Grenache-based wines) with a powerpoint presentation and session plan, just as we'd done last year for Level 2. Luckily for me, I have a habit of procastinating. Just at the point that I was about to knuckle down and prepare the class, I received a panicked email from Karen Douglas, WSET's Director of Education, asking me to stop making the powerpoint and session plan; instead, she wanted me to use a presentation and session plan (now on the white wines of Alsace) that she had prepared. The reason for this was that she had discovered that educators preparing for the course had found it difficult to adapt their methods to the new level, so Karen wanted to help us learn without having to build a class from scratch. This shows the difficulty of change, given that the WSET had spent several years developing the new course, but also how necessary it is for them to demonstrate why that change is worthwhile.

It was certainly useful to pick her brain about the WSET's approach to the new level, without having to worry that my presentation met that approach. Besides the more interactive teaching methods, the biggest change is in the revised tasting methodology. Aromas are now classified as primary, secondary, and tertiary to help students demonstrate where aromas in a wine come from - the grape, the production methods, or bottle ageing. I learnt that students do not have to write the terms primary, secondary, or tertiary aromas in their tasting notes, but they have to recognise them: if a wine, for instance, has tertiary aromas, then the student is expected to write examples of those aromas otherwise they'll lose points.

Related to this, I asked what to do about wines that had primary aromas of nuts (for instance, Rhône whites or Verdicchio) rather than tertiary aromas from oxidation (for example, sherry), which is the only place nuts are mentioned in the revised Systematic Approach to Tasting. The answer is that we, as educators, need to teach students how to understand where aromas come from, which is why being able to explain the difference between primary, secondary, and tertiary aromas is so important. That understanding enables students then to expand on the SAT to use their own descriptors, where appropriate. This underscores something that it's easy to forget: that tasting a wine is a personal experience, based on one's own knowledge and ability to interpret the qualities of a wine.

the old and new WSET lexicon

mediumitis

My theory presentation on the white wines of Alsace went extremely well, but for the tasting (on Viña Ardanza Reserva 2007) I was guilty of "mediumitis," ironic given that I am always pushing my students to be bold in the analysis of a wine in describing the acidity, tannins, or flavour intensity as high rather than medium plus. When teaching students, I am in a position of authority which allows me to push them beyond their received thinking. It's different, however, when in the presence of fellow Diploma graduates, the WSET Director of education, and an MW: I became much more cautious in describing the wine I'd been assigned for the tasting.

Both myself and my new Canadian friends were afterwards given a very useful lesson on what exactly low, medium-, medium, medium+, and pronounced mean to the WSET. Either a wine, for example, has low, medium, or high acidity, which is what Level 2 students are taught. At Level 3, the gradients medium- and medium+ are introduced. These are not alternatives to low or high, but variations on medium. So when tasting a wine, the assessment should be: are the acidity, tannins, or the flavour intensity of a wine low, medium, or high? If it's medium, only then do medium- or medium+ come into play.

The most important aspect to remember is that there is a spectrum within those gradients. In describing a wine as having high tannins, it does not have to be the most tannic wine you've ever tasted (like a Barolo): it simply has to have high tannins. Likewise, a wine with high acidity does not have to be a Riesling: it simply has to have high acidity. Failing to appreciate the structure of a wine just because it isn't as extreme as others previously tasted is a fault that students at both Level 3 and Diploma are guilty of, and frustratingly I was too in the assessment. But it's not something I'll be guilty of again.

how to use the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting

So I am now almost a WSET Certified Educator. I just have to complete an online course on assessing Level 3 tasting notes, and then I'm done. As the WSET is consistently assessing its own courses in an increasingly competitive wine education environment, I'm excited to see where teaching the WSET takes me. But, I swear, no more exams, ever.

New WSET Level 3

It's been over three years since I took the WSET's Level 3. At the time, it was exactly what I was looking for: a broad, comprehensive, yet vigorous overview of the world of wine, how wine is made, and how to taste wine. Since then, I've gone on to take the WSET Diploma, taught both WSET Levels 2 and 3, and taken the WSET Educator course which puts me on track to becoming an accredited WSET Educator. Despite the many strengths of the Level 3 course, I've also discovered some of its weaknesses - its concentrated focus on France can be off-putting to many students, its structure can seem too formulaic, and, put bluntly, the blind tasting exam is too easy.

But all that is about to change, as in August the WSET are launching a new Level 3 which is quite different from, and I think better than, the previous one. The biggest and most immediate change is to the tasting exam. Under the current format, 95% of students were passing the exam, which is far too high a proportion. I remember dreading the tasting part of the exam, and before taking the course I went to Berry Bros & Rudd in London to take an evening class to prepare for the blind tasting. As useful as that class was in honing my tasting skills, it wasn't really necessary. The tasting wasn't truly "blind," as there was a choice of three wines at the bottom and it was obvious which one was correct. In my exam, the choice for the white wine was Soave, New Zealand Chardonnay, and Auslese Riesling. It was immediately apparent that the wine was a Chardonnay, and I could write a tasting note without even tasting the wine. That's what a lot of students were doing, which is why the WSET have changed the format of the exam. There will no longer be a choice of wines; in fact, the student will not even have to identify the wine. Instead, they will have to write an accurate tasting note based on what they are tasting rather than what they think the wine is. I think this is a much needed improvement: it will sharpen students' tasting skills and, by making the exam harder, it will better prepare students for the Diploma where students' tasting abilities have been found to be lacking.

The other change to the tasting part of the course is to the Systematic Approach to Tasting, the WSET's sometimes frustrating guide to tasting a wine. Whereas the aromas were previously divided into floral/fruit, spice/vegetable, and oak/other, now they are divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary and these are terms students have to use in the exam. This is to ensure that students are able to show where aromas in a wine come from: primary aromas (flowers, fruits, herbs) come directly from the grape; secondary aromas (oak, MLF, lees) come from winemaking practices; and tertiary aromas (oxidation, bottle ageing) come from maturation.

The theory part of the course is also different. Previously, classes were organised by region which meant a prolonged trudge through France's many, varied regions without looking at any other countries for several weeks. Now, the classes are arranged by style; for example the aromatic white wines of Alsace, Germany, Austria, and Hungary will be studied together rather than separately. I think this is a vast improvement, as continually comparing regions will force students to think about what makes each one distinct.

Another major change is that spirits will no longer be covered - hopefully, there will be a separate Level 3 for spirits in the near future. Madeira is also no longer covered, as apparently students found its terminology too difficult. Now, it's only to be studied for the Diploma. That's a great shame, but I guess we have to remember what a minor category madeira now is.

I'm excited to teach this updated version of Level 3 as I think it will be both more challenging and more invigorating for students. I'll let you know if that's the case in practice.

WSET Educator Course

This blog has had a bit of a hiatus recently, as I was busy preparing for - and then doing - a WSET Educator Training course in San Francisco. The course was an intense, challenging, yet highly rewarding experience, which I feel has improved my teaching methods and helped me greatly understand what the WSET want students to learn from their courses - something I've wanted to get to the bottom of for a long time.

the course

Just to give an idea of the intensity of the course: I walked into the classroom at 8:30 on Monday morning, to be greeted by Master of Wine David Wrigley, who created the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting and who was leading the course. At the back of the room sat another MW, Mary Ewing-Mulligan of the International Wine Center in New York, and two MWs in training, Jim Gore of the WSET and Mary Vari from Toronto's Independent Wine Education Guild. As introductions go, that's as intimidating as it gets.

Feeling intimidated at the beginning of the course is quite usual, though, and the friendliness and support of the teaching staff quickly became clear. Together with the tutors, the class, which featured students from the US, Canada, and Jamaica, formed a strong bond which saw us through some challenging sessions.

The first day was mostly spent learning about best teaching methods. My favourite advice for preparing a lesson was that you should create a list of topics where knowledge is assumed, those that must be covered, those that could be covered, and those that must not. As well as being a good preparation tool, this really clarified what was expected of students at the different WSET levels. Those levels are divided into Beginner (Level 1), Intermediate (Level 2), and Advanced (Level 3). An important thing I learnt is that Level 1 is aimed at those in the service industry wanting, or having, to do a one-day course, while Level 2 is for those who want a more in-depth knowledge of wine. However, both courses are for students who have no assumed prior knowledge.

Having learnt this, we were given a series of facts about Chablis to divide into assumed, must cover, could cover, and must not for a Level 2 class. Each group of would-be teachers placed the most basic facts about Chablis into assumed knowledge. As David pointed out, we'd all fallen into a carefully-laid trap: there is no assumed knowledge at Level 2.

Realising the difference between each level was one of the most valuable aspects of the course. Level 2 is, I finally learnt, called Understanding the Label for a reason: at the end of the level, students should be able to explain a wine label - what the wine tastes like, what the terms mean, what the grape varieties used are. Meanwhile, at Level 3, which is called Understanding Style and Quality, it's about the why - why the wine tastes like it does.

On the second morning, we were led through the WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting by Jim Gore, in which I had to give a tasting on a standard Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Again, most valuable was understanding the approach the WSET wants for each level: Level 1 is quite simple, learning about the different basic types and styles of wine; Level 2 is about how the taste of a wine reflects what's on the label; while Level 3 is about why the wine tastes like it does, going much further into describing its different structural elements.

I also learnt that the WSET are going to formally add BLIC (Balance, Length, Intensity, Complexity) to the Level 3 Systematic Approach to Tasting. This is a way of assessing the quality of the wine which, although not perfect, makes it clearer than before what students should be looking for in a wine when drawing conclusions on the wine's quality. Is the wine balanced? How long is the finish? How intense are the aromas? How complex is the wine? Although the student still has to write an accurate tasting note that logically leads to quality conclusions, using BLIC will help focus students when thinking about quality. (Another change when the WSET Level 3 is relaunched in August is that the spirits component of the book is to be removed, with a separate Level 3 for spirits to be created at some point.)

teaching

By far the most intimidating and challenging aspect was being assessed teaching. On the afternoon of the second day, we all had to give a 15-minute class on an assigned topic, in my case German labelling terms. Teaching the topic also required creating a PowerPoint presentation and a detailed session plan. Despite plenty of experience teaching, I have never been so nervous presenting in front of a class. Maybe it was the two MWs at the back of the room assessing me; maybe it was because all the pretend Level 2 students in my class were my peers already holding or studying for the Diploma. My presentation went well enough and got good feedback from both the assessors and the other students, but my throat was dry, I stammered for words, and wasn't as coherent as I wanted to be. Fortunately, the third day was mostly free to revise our presentations and work with fellow students to help us improve: the collegiate nature of the course definitely benefitted everyone's presentations and confidence, including my own.

assessment

The final day saw us being formally assessed, and after three days of learning, studying, and practising, I felt no way near as nervous as I did for the practice assessment.

The fifteen-minute class was immediately followed by a ten-minute tasting also at Level 2; in my case the wine was a Chianti Classico. Although we were only able to taste the wines a few minutes before our assessments, we had been promised that the wines would be typical of their region. My Chianti Classico was certainly that, and it was quite straightforward talking the class through the red fruits, high acidity, and medium tannins of the Sangiovese. 

After the morning-long assessment, we all sat in a large room waiting to be called in and told whether we had passed or not. The hours passed as we waited, nervously joking with one another. Three hours later, I was finally called in to be told I had passed and I had the makings of a very good teacher.

This means I am now fully qualified to teach Level 2. Once I have finally finished the Diploma (just the fortified wine unit to go), I will have to return to become a fully accredited WSET Educator by teaching a Level 3 tasting and learning how to mark Level 3 papers. Then, I hope, I will never have to do an exam again.

Diploma: First Week

day one

I walked into the room nervous and fearing I was very late, but I was actually three minutes ahead of the 9am start; the strict warnings about being there at 8.30 to register were shallow. That's something I find about the WSET: lots of particular instructions about doing everything in a particular way, but frustratingly vague when asked for a particular example or answer. I was hoping for some clarification about what exactly the WSET want from us, as students, and how they think we should take what we learn into the business, but I still feel it could be a long time till I find a clear answer - every tutor's different and although they try to conform to the WSET way of doing things, each one still interprets it differently.

Our first two tutors reflected these different approaches: Karen, a trained teacher with a belligerent attitude towards conveying information, and Russell, mild-mannered with a suggestively persuasive teaching technique.

The day was intensive, mainly focused on tasting. This is where WSET can be at its most infuriating and inconsistent. The guidelines, and interpretations of those guidelines, change all the time, wrestling with their self-imposed limitations. The SAT (Systematic Approach to Tasting), a two-sided document which tries to make the subjective exercise of wine tasting as objective as possible, is going to change for our Still Wines tasting exam next year, but not for the Sparkling Wines exam in March. I finally learnt that medium(-) and medium(+) are alternatives to medium, not grades between low and high; that lemon-green colour has to have some green in it (seems obvious, but I've never been told that before); that gold has to have some orange in it; that purple has to have some blue in it. Why couldn't have these facts been made clear in previous courses? or is it that WSET are always having to correct/nuance their definitions?

Karen gave us a useful blind-tasting tip to help organise and identify the wines: in a flight, look at each wine separately and write your observations; then smell each wine separately and write your observations; and then decide in which order to taste them.

Our first flight of blind tasting had three white wines, three questions: which grape variety are the wines? which one is a big volume brand? which one is cool climate? The grape variety was easy, because the first wine was massively oaky: Chardonnay (from Meerlust, South Africa). Distinguishing the other two was harder, but the faint whiff of oak chips on the second wine indicated a brand (Jacob's Creek; any wine described as having "subtle oak flavours" was aged with oak chips, not in oak barrels) and the higher acidity on the third pointed towards cool climate (Chablis).

The second flight of blind tasting I got completely wrong. Four reds, all the same grape. I figured out the grape was Cabernet Sauvignon, because each wine had blackcurrant aromas and flavours, but I didn't identify any of them correctly. I even managed to describe a 2004 Pauillac as being an unoaked Languedoc; in my defence, even after identification, it was still a disappointing wine. But I went home a little stressed about tasting - even if the exam's over a year away.

day two

Another tutor, Gareth, striding around the room like a sergeant-major and as English as they come - he confessed, without any embarrassment, to having worn a tweed suit to a whisky tasting on Islay.

The first tasting was four wines: two reds, same grape, one from a cooler climate, the other from a warmer climate and two other reds, same conditions. The first wine gave the game away for that pairing: garnet colour, strawberries and raspberries, Burgundy Pinot Noir. The second pairing was more difficult as the wine from the cooler climate was actually from Hawke's Bay, which has a fairly moderate climate, but its tannins were less ripe than the other from Barossa Valley (the grape was Syrah/Shiraz). When trying to identify the origin of a wine the ripeness of the tannins is an important indication.

Then followed a prolonged morning of viticulture lecture, which can only be described as hardcore. The Diploma starts with winemaking with good reason for it provides a thorough base for understanding everything else about wine. I was terrible at biology and chemistry at school, though, and I have no horticultural skills whatsoever, so I'll be glad when the exam's done with at the beginning of February.

The afternoon was much more fun, as well as equally educational, with an amazing line-up of eight high-quality, but very different sweet wines. It was an intensive, informative tasting, learning about the different methods of sweet-wine production, and then tasting examples.

In the line-up was a lusciously sweet Canadian icewine from Peller, which was outstanding but needed a lushly sweet dessert; even though this was the sweetest wine we tasted, it was shown third out of eight. We were also treated to a 1992 Beerenauslese, a wine whose aroma was so crazy it stank of old socks and could sit in a line-up of funky beers. My favourite wine of the tasting was a Tokaji, made by the great Spanish estate Vega Sicilia; complex funky aromas from the Botrytis, yet with a real freshness on the palate. We finished with a 2003 Sauternes; its oaky spiciness was so upfront it reminded me of an American rye whiskey, and on further tasting it felt a little unsubtle.

Recioto; Jurançon; Icewine; Coteaux du Layon; Tokaji; Beerenauslese; Australian Sémillon; Sauternes

day three

Another hardcore morning of Gareth lecturing on viticulture. Hard for it to stick in the mind, so much information being delivered so quickly. I did an online mock paper in the evening; to my surprise I managed to get 70%, enough for a merit. Encouraging, but it involved quite a bit of guesswork and I'm going to have to do a lot of work before the exam in February to properly organise all the information I've struggled to process. 

The afternoon saw our final tasting session of the week. First, we split into groups of four, each group tasting a wine. We wrote collective tasting notes, without drawing any conclusions about quality or identity. We then saw another group's notes and wrote conclusions based on their tasting, after which we tasted their wine to see if our actual conclusions matched our projected ones. An interesting exercise in communication and the importance of clarity: do people hear what we think we are conveying? how do we interpret what we're being told?

The day finished with a mock tasting exam, which we were all suitably nervy about. Three red wines: write a tasting note, decide the grape variety and give reasons, and assess the quality of the wine, all in thirty minutes. That may seem a long time, but ten minutes to describe, define, and assess a wine is intense. We don't get our marks till February (it would have been much more useful for us for the tutor to mark the papers straightaway), but we were told the identity of each wine afterwards. Cabernet Sauvignon (got it; full of blackcurrants and mint); Nebbiolo (got it; garnet colour, red fruits, and loads of tannin and acidity); and Pinot Noir (didn't get it, amusingly declaring it was a Merlot; my description of leather, game, and mushroom should have pointed me in the right direction, but it crossed the mind of no one in the room that this difficult, dark-coloured wine could be Pinot Noir, even though it turned out to be from the heart of Burgundy, Nuits-St-George). Don't know what mark I'll get, but I already feel I've learnt a lot about pinpointing the identity of a wine. I'm looking forward to practising my tasting skills in more comfortable conditions.

day four

All tasting over, meaning a day's worth of Gareth lecturing, the focus on the business of wine. Lots of interesting information, but conveyed at breakneck speed over the course of eight hours. The WSET really need to improve their teaching techniques and encourage more student interaction. Most of the students in the class work in the industry - and the two that don't have a lifetime of drinking experience - and we would all benefit from hearing about everyone's else experiences of, and opinions on, the business from different perspectives. A tasting would have helped, as well; for example, a supermarket wine, a wine from Majestic, and a wine from an independent retailer. Would we have spotted which was which? how would quality have varied? which would have seemed better value for money?

day five

Another morning on the business of wine, this time focusing on brands. Again, tasting some of the brands we learnt about would have been helpful. This did finish with some groupwork, though, with our task marketing a quality fino sherry in the UK - just the kind of thing I'd like to do in real life!

In the afternoon, we were given daunting example questions on sparkling wines and spirits, exams we're taking in March. In each exam, you get given three drinks to taste - and I don't drink sparkling or spirits that often. And then there are three written questions, each worth twenty-five marks. For example, write about Pinot Meunier, Asti, and Bollinger; Bourbon, Cognac labelling, and Diageo - all subjects I know so much about.

All in all, I've got plenty of studying - and drinking - to do over the next two months on three very different topics!