WSET Diploma - done and dusted

On a grey winter's day in Manchester I started the WSET Diploma; two and a half years and eight exams later, on a sunny summer's day in California I finally received the result for my last exam on fortified wine. I passed, meaning that I passed all six units at the first attempt, and I am officially done and dusted with the Diploma, feeling both euphoria and relief.

It's been a long, exhausting, and challenging process, but I've got a huge amount out of it. When I started I thought I already knew a lot about wine, but I now realise how little I actually knew. The world of wine is huge, and for the Diploma I've had to write an essay on China, study Indian, Japanese, and Cypriot wine, and learn the differences between all the Burgundy villages. And that's just wine: one of my first exams was on spirits, and I had to jump into a month-long crash course on all the varied production methods and styles of spirits. (Somehow, I passed that exam with merit, I don't know how.) 

Despite occasional frustration, it's all been worth it. I'm a much better taster, my writing has become more precise, and my knowledge about wine is extensive - although I'm perhaps more humble about admitting what I don't know, because one thing I've learnt is that you can never know everything about wine. 

I'd highly recommend anyone who is serious about a career in the industry taking the WSET Diploma, but don't take it lightly. It's a lot of hard work and the WSET require a very rigorous approach to both tasting and writing about wine. Even as someone who has a PhD, the Diploma is as tough a qualification as it's possible to take. Which is why I'm pretty proud to have passed. 

The Longest Day: WSET Diploma Unit 3 Exam

The ideal way to approach an exam is to be relaxed, calm, and focused. So I set off at 6:45 to make the hour-long journey from Napa to San Francisco for the day's tasting and theory exams. The plan was to do a quick tasting with my study group before the exam to get into the right frame of mind. I knew there'd be traffic but I did not factor in rain. The slightest drizzle brings the Bay Area to a halt. Yes, there's a drought in California, yes, rain is unusual here, but believe me Cali folk it is safe to drive faster than 20mph in light rain. Crawling along the freeway, the 50-mile journey took 2 hours 45 minutes. I stumbled, sweating, shaking, and just about ready to cry, into the exam room at 9:30, the very minute it was scheduled to start.

Thankfully, our tutor Adam Chase had delayed the start and I hadn't missed an exam I'd spent over a year preparing for. There was even time for a member of my study group to give me a taste of a Vouvray - never has Chenin Blanc tasted so good. And it proved that a quick sip of a refreshing, dry white wine is a great way to prepare the palate for an intensive tasting. 

the tasting 

Twelve wines, organised into four flights of three. We were given an hour to taste the first six wines, followed by a ten-minute break and then the final six wines. 

flight 1

Each flight had a different theme. The first flight was three white wines, all the same variety. As with all the wines, we had to write a tasting note, assess the quality, and state its readiness for drinking and its ageing potential. We also had to say which country and region each wine was from, before concluding at the end of the flight which grape variety the wines were made from, giving reasons for our conclusion. The wines were quite clearly Chardonnay; working out which region each wine was from was more difficult as Chardonnay is made in such an international style.

William Fèvre Chablis 2013

I got some oak on this wine, so although I said it was from Burgundy I didn't think Chablis - but Fèvre have been using more oak in their wines in recent years. It would have been nice if the WSET had chosen a more typical example of Chablis.

Hardys HRB D652 Chardonnay 2011 (Australia)

An oak bomb that could have come from any warm climate region: I guessed California.

Au Bon Climat Wild Boy Chardonnay 2012 (California)

From one of my favourite producers, the Wild Boy is only available in the UK. As this exam is taken all around the world, choosing wines that are distributed in different countries may help. I guessed the wine was from Chile, as I'd already gone for California for the previous wine.

flight 2

The second flight had one white and two reds: this time we had to say which country/region they were all from, as well as deciding which grape variety each wine was made from, again giving reasons. I actually got all three grapes, but changed my mind on the first wine at the last minute as I was confused trying to think of a country that makes sweetish Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet blends. I could only think that the wines were from France, so at the last second crossed out Riesling and wrote Chenin Blanc - forgetting that New Zealand produces forgettably small amounts of medium-dry/sweet Riesling.

Te Kairanga Martinborough Riesling 2011

Medium-dry and rather shallow, yet with lime aromas characteristic of Riesling. Should have stuck with my instincts.

Yealands Estate Reserve Central Otago Pinot Noir 2013

This was a good Pinot Noir, though rather too full-bodied and fruity - factors which should have led me away from Burgundy.

Villa Maria Reserve Gimblett Gravels Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2010 

Balanced and integrated, this was a really good example of a Cabernet Sauvignon from a moderate climate. It was slightly herbaceous, with green, minty aromas which made me think of Bordeaux.

I finished one minute before the time was up: 6 wines in 60 minutes leaves very little time for reflection. Instead, it's a case of constantly writing while simultaneously trying to assess the quality, identity, and connection between each wines. The one good thing about this is that, right or wrong, you just have to move on.

flight 4

For the next set of six wines, I decided to do the fourth flight first as it featured two whites and a red. This was a mixed selection of wines we had studied, with no link connecting them. As well as assessing the quality, we had to state the grape variety/ies and the region the wine came from.

Baumard Carte d'Or Coteaux du Layon 2013

I figured out this was a really sweet wine, so my tasting notes should be quite accurate. I concluded, however, that this was a Riesling from Rheingau rather than Chenin Blanc from the Loire: once again I got my Riesling and Chenin Blanc mixed up. If only the Chenin Blanc I'd quickly tasted in the morning had been sweet rather than dry. This was the only wine of the twelve which I rated outstanding.

Fillaboa Albariño (WSET haven't released the vintage)

This was a beautifully aromatic wine, grapey with ripe stone fruits, but with a really dry, mineral palate. Albariño didn't cross my mind though - the nose was so grapey that I went for Muscat from Alsace.

Trapiche Gran Medalla Malbec 2011 

I went out on a limb with this wine and called it a Recioto from Valpolicella, as there seemed to be a definite sweetness on both the nose and the palate. I was completely wrong about that.

Failing to get the grape or the region right may seem a disaster, but even though I declared that the Malbec was a sweet red wine I actually think my tasting notes were pretty decent.

flight 3

I then moved back to the third flight, which was wines all from the same region. Strangely, we didn't have to identify that region. Instead, we had to give a detailed assessment of quality - for this section there were 8 points rather than the 4-6 points for the other flights. Having found out the identity of the wines, I'm glad we didn't have to name the region. I was convinced these three wines were from Rioja: the first two wines were oaky, with red and dried fruits, while the third was young and fruity.

Domaine le Couroulu Vacqueyras Cuvée Classique 2011

The nose and palate of this wine were so mature and developed that I instantly concluded that it was a Gran Reserva, and one that was ten years old at that. It was quite a beautiful wine albeit losing some of its freshness, and I was very surprised to learn it was less than five years old. Because I thought it was so much older, this is one wine from the exam I will have lost quite a few marks on.

Val de Garrigue Cuvée du Pape Jean XX Vielles Vignes Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2012

I thought this was a modern Reserva; as it's been aged in oak for 12 months, I at least got the ageing right. This had really nice red fruits, but didn't seem quite balanced - maybe a bit too young still.

Les Galets Côtes du Rhône 2012

Young, fruity, and nondescript, this completed the trio of basic appellation, good appellation, and top appellation.

I came out of the tasting exam already exhausted but content that I'd done enough to pass. Although I'd misidentified some of the wines, I felt my tasting notes were accurate enough - which is what I think wine tasting should be about. Put simply, all I want to know when I taste a wine is, What does it taste like? and Is it good? 

the theory 

After a near three-hour drive and a two-hour tasting exam, the last thing I wanted to do was a three-hour theory paper. But did it I did. 

I was expecting some obscure questions designed to torment us, but all of them were fair enough. I still made some basic errors which I'm annoyed about but there's no changing anything now. Here, paraphrased, are the five questions I answered, followed by the two I avoided.

Account for the differences in the style, quality, and price between the following appellations:
a) Pauillac b) Barsac c) Entre-deux-Mers
This was the complusory question, the one everybody was dreading in case it asked something we knew nothing about. This was a very approachable question, though: very high-end red AC from Haut-Médoc; sweet white from next to Sauternes; and basic dry white from the biggest producing area in Bordeaux. (If I had been answering this question in Manchester, where I started studying for the Diploma, I would have had to answer on Pomerol instead of Pauillac. The questions vary slightly for Asian, European, and American papers.)

"Riesling can claim to be the world's finest white grape variety." Why is this the case (60%)? Why is Riesling unfashionable in some markets? (40%)
This was another question you could really get your teeth stuck into.

Describe the red wines of the south of France from:
a) IGP/Vin de Pays b) Corbières c) Bandol
I engaged in a bit of bluster for this one, but hopefully I threw in some accurate information along the way. My answer for Bandol can be summed up as, The red wines are really, really good - which I think is impossible to dispute.

Discuss the climate and choice of grape variety in five of the following regions:
a) Aconcagua b) Clare Valley c) Okanagan Valley d) Central Otago e) Salta f) Central Valley USA
This is the answer I am least confident about, with a lot of repetition (particularly the phrase diurnal temperature varitation). I also got confused about Salta, saying Chardonnay was grown there instead of Torrontés. That really annoys me, because I knew that and I lost some easy points. The region I avoided was Canada's Okanagan Valley: I could describe the climate (cold winters, very hot summers, arid conditions) but couldn't remember which grape varieties are grown there. Wines from Okanagan are not ones I encounter every day. (On the European paper, Coonawarra and Lodi were asked about instead of Salta and Central Valley.)

Write about three of the following grape varieties:
a) Assyrtiko b) Savatiano c) Agiorgitiko d) Xinomavro (60%)
What are the challenges facing the Greek wine industry when selling the wines abroad? (40%)
I was able to cover most relevant points regarding Assyrtiko, remembered that Savatiano is the main grape in Retsina, and wrote down some information about Agiorgitiko, some of which was accurate. I could still be writing about the challenges facing the Greek wine industry. 

Describe the following wines and discuss how factors in the vineyard and winery determine their character: premium Stellenbosch Pinotage and bulk Worcester Chenin Blanc. (70%) What advantages and disadvantages might producers of these wines face in the market place? (30%)
There's only one wine I would rather less write about than Pinotage: bulk Chenin Blanc.

With reference to the wines of Italy, write about five of the following:
a) Gaja b) Dolcetto c) Teroldego d) Bianco di Custoza e) Collio (Collio Goriziano) f) Gattinara
Going into the exam, I felt quite confident about Italy. I took one look at these options, however, and moved on to Greece. (The options on the European paper were very different and, apart from Valtellina, I would have felt more confident answering them: Gaja, Teroldego, Arneis, Bardolino, Colli Orientali, and Valtellina.)

This was as tough a day as expected: the range of wines and theory questions covers just about every area imaginable. It requires not just factual knowledge, but interpretation of that knowledge. It also demands five hours of writing by hand, something I haven't done since my school days. Although I hope I've passed both papers, I feel - as I did after taking my spirits and sparkling wine exams - that I'm now better prepared to take them than I was going in. Whatever the outcome, there's always more to learn about wine, but for the time being I can go back to studying and tasting (drinking) wine for my own pleasure rather than for an exam.

After all that, there was still the drive back to Napa. Seeing the traffic going on to the Bay Bridge I pulled over for a much-needed nap. Waking up, the traffic was still there, so I went for a much-needed beer. After that, I still found myself in stand still traffic for half an hour before it finally eased up. I got back home at 9pm, a long 15 hours after I'd left, and poured myself a much, much-needed tequila.

*update* (12 September 2015)

I today received confirmation of my results, passing both tasting and theory with merit (meaning I scored 65%+). I was delighted enough to pass, let alone to achieve a good score. The results are broken down further by question, and I thought I would share how I did for each one to give an idea of how my initial reaction corresponded with how I actually performed.

tasting
flight 1: pass with distinction - as these wines were clearly Chardonnay, I wasn't surprised I had a good score
flight 2: pass with merit - I identified two of the wines correctly and my reasoning that the wines came from a cool to moderate climate were sound
flight 3: pass - given I thought that the wines were from Rioja rather than the southern Rhône, it's not surprising I didn't score as well
flight 4: pass - again, thinking that an Argentinian Malbec was a Recioto was always going to damage my score. But in both these flights, I wrote accurate enough tasting notes

My tasting scores were more up and down than I would have liked, and I need to become more consistent in my ability to identify a wine.

theory
question 1: pass with distinction - I'm very pleased to have got such a high score on a question on Bordeaux
question 2: pass with merit - I felt I did a good job balancing fact and opinion in answering on Riesling
question 4: pass with merit - I thought I'd made up a bit too much answering this question on the south of France, but it must have been more accurate than I gave myself credit for
question 5: pass with merit - I felt I answered these questions on the climates of different regions well, but I was disappointed that I made a couple of basic mistakes, such as saying that Salta is known for Chardonnay
question 6: pass - my answer on Greece was certainly weak on describing the grape varieties, but I think I compensated enough on talking about the challenges facing the Greek wine industry

I went into the exam very nervous about the theory, but I'm really pleased that I managed to marshal a year's worth of study into consistently good answers. Knowledge that's already disappearing now that I don't have to prepare for an exam ...

Cabernet Sauvignon

Next week is D-Day: I take the Unit 3 exam for the WSET Diploma. This unit is called "Wines of the World," which encompasses just about every wine region you've heard of and plenty you haven't. From Israel to Itata, Greece to Geelong, Chinon to Cafayate, I need to know something about everything. It's going to be a long day: two hours blind tasting four flights of three wines followed by three hours writing five essays.

For all the areas covered though, there are some basics that are likely to come up in the exam in some form. So for our last meeting, our study group tasted five Cabernet Sauvignons from major regions around the world: Bordeaux, California, South Africa, Western Australia, and Chile.

It was a fascinating tasting, revealing why winemakers around the world are so drawn to this grape. Each wine in its different way represented its region, with a surprising variety of flavours and styles for a grape that can sometimes be produced in a homeogeneous way.

the grape

In France, Cabernet Sauvignon is the backbone for some of its greatest wines in Bordeaux. There, however, it is usually blended with other Bordeaux grapes, particularly Merlot (for its ripe fruits and soft tannins), as well as Cabernet Franc (for its red fruit aromas) and Petit Verdot (in warm vintages adding black fruits and deep colour). Following Bordeaux's lead, I generally believe that Cabernet is at its best in a blend: its big tannins, which come from its thick skins, and its concentrated blackcurrant aromas need to be softened. There's also a practicality to blending in Bordeaux: Cabernet Sauvignon ripens late and not always reliably in Bordeaux's moderate maritime climate, so the other grapes are planted as a back up.

In warmer regions around the world, ripening Cabernet successfully is not a problem. This makes blending less of an imperative, though I feel it still adds quality to the wine. The commercial importance of varietal labelling pressurises winemakers not to blend - but, as in most regions a varietal wine need only be 85% of that variety (75% in California), there's still room for experimentation.

the regions

Cabernet is now grown pretty much anywhere it's warm enough for it to ripen. Even cool areas such as the Loire and Germany (albeit only 353ha) see it planted. It led the rise of Bulgarian wine in the 1980s, the international rise of Napa, and the trend for high-quality, expensive superTuscans: it's this versatility that makes the grape so attractive to growers and producers. There are many other grapes varieties I prefer but there are few that adapt to so many different areas.

the wines

Kathryn Hall Napa Valley 2009 (c.$55)

This was quite a beautiful example of Cabernet Sauvignon, showcasing the appeal but also the frustration of Napa. Ripe, black fruits, smoky oak, dried fruits of prunes and currants, and an earthy, leathery maturity, this wine is ageing well. However, not unusually for Napa, alcohol is a colossal 15.8% and it was the most expensive wine we tasted. It's impressive that such a high alcohol wine can have so much finesse but that level of alcohol is avoidable. ✪✪✪✪✪

John X Merriman Rustenberg Stellenbosch 2011 ($30)

When underripe, Cabernet Sauvignon can have noticeably green, herbaceous aromas. I quite like them, as long as they don't dominate, but I have met Napa producers who see that greenness as a sign of failure. This South African wine embraces that underripe greenness, with a very herbaceous nose, but engages in quite a bit of blending to counter it: 55% Cabernet, 37% Merlot, 4% Petit Verdot, 2% Cabernet Franc, and 2% Malbec. The cool climate is also reflected in the incredibly dry, dusty tannins. South Africa prides itself in being more Old World than New World and this wine demonstrates that sensibility. However, I would have liked to have seen riper fruits to break through the big, drying tannins. ✪✪✪✪

Cape Mentelle Margaret River 2011 (c.$45)

From the winery in Western Australia that created New Zealand's Cloudy Bay, this wine felt a little weak after the first two wines. It was, however, characteristic of Western Australia, with aromas of mint and eucalyptus apparent over the black fruits. Alcohol was lower than the first two wines at 13.5%, making it more balanced. Overall, however, the wine lacked complexity and concentration. ✪✪✪✪

Black Box Central Valley Chile 2013 ($20)

Wine in a box certainly has its place and $20 for the equivalent of four bottles is a deal. Working out at $5 a bottle, though, means that quality is compromised. A very bitter, green, stalky nose with chocolate, cola, currants, and cherries gives lots of aromas, but not all of them are pleasant. If I were at party drinking this boxed wine, I'd be happy enough. Although Jancis Robinson says there is a revolution in the quality of Chilean wine, I'm still looking forward to tasting it. ✪✪✪ 

Château Beauregard-Ducourt Bordeaux AC 2010 (c.$15)

And we finished with Bordeaux, the spiritual home of Cabernet. I find Bordeaux either too expensive to know what it tastes like or too cheap to want to taste it. This fell into the latter category. The nose was pleasant enough with raspberries and blackcurrants, lavender and roses, with some smoky, clove-like oakiness, but the palate was dominated by acidity and tannins which just weren't in balance. ✪✪✪

The finest wine of the five was from Napa, but it was also the most expensive and the one most likely to lead to domestic violence. South Africa provided the best value for the quality, and tasted more Bordeaux than the Bordeaux itself. The wine also provided the advantage of being blended with other grapes bringing their own moderating qualities: the wine may have been undrinkable if it had been 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. I think there's a lesson in that.

Diploma Week Three - Australia

A month after enduring the spirits and sparkling wine exams, we reconvened for three days of tasting New World wine and, thankfully, no exams. I'm a little suspicious of the term "New World"; after all, some of the oldest vines in the world are in Australia and California. However, as the first day tasting Australian wine demonstrated, the development of serious, quality wine, as well as popular, affordable wine, in non-European countries is a relatively recent phenomenon. Our tutor for the day, Michael Buriak, recalled working in the wine trade in the 1980s and stocking his shop's first ever bottle of Australian wine, seen as a novelty item. It sold out instantly, and Australian wine has never looked back - it's now consistently the number one selling wine by country in the UK. (Only the US drinks more Australian wine than the UK, and that's because of the ubiquitous Yellow Tail brand.)

The popularity of Australian wine makes it an interesting category. It's best known for producing inexpensive, high-volume, drinkable wines which unfortunately means that consumers are likely to stick to the inexpensive wines and ignore the high-quality, premium alternatives. This is a perception Australian wine is trying to shift, but when big brands like Jacob's Creek and Hardy's dominate the market it's hard.

Despite having 120-year-old vines, Australian winemakers are still learning their trade, moving on from big, oaky Chardonnay and fruit-bomb Shiraz to produce wines of elegance and subtlety. As I've learnt from working at hangingditch over the last eighteen months, and as this day's tasting further proved, premium Australian wine can be sensational and is getting better and better.

what we tasted

This was a stellar line-up, showcasing Australian wine at its best and most varied. Much of the wine was not the inexpensive stuff that makes Australian wine so popular, but it meant that we gained a real understanding of Australian terroir.

Australia is divided into areas of geographical indication. Although some of these areas are particularly associated with a grape variety or style of wine (e.g. Coonawarra and Cabernet Sauvignon), there are no real rules to them beyond geography. They can be very small or enormous, and there's probably no larger wine region in the world than South Eastern Australia, not that different in size from the EU. If you see the term South Eastern Australia on the label, then it's likely to be an inexpensive wine produced in the bulk regions of Riverland, Murray Valley, and Riverina.

Our first wine was an example of what makes Australian wine so popular. Hardy's Nottage Hill Chardonnay 2013 (c.£8) is a high-volume wine from South Eastern Australia, which basically means absolutely anywhere. It's been given oak qualities through the use of oak chips to give it a semblance of complexity. It's a decent wine that will make a sunny weekend perfectly pleasant. We saved this wine to taste alongside other Chardonnays later in the day, which did not do it any favours.

After that, our tasting was all about quality and varietal/regional typicity. Shaw + Smith are an excellent winery based in Adelaide Hills. Australia is a huge country dominated by arid, inhospitable desert. As with the population centres, quality wine is focused on the cooler coastal regions, which are cooled further by altitude. Thus, there's a concentration of quality wine regions around the city of Adelaide, such as Barossa Valley, Eden Valley, Clare Valley, and Adelaide Hills. We tasted two of Shaw + Smith's wines, both of which were very good. The 2013 Sauvignon Blanc (c£16) was as good a Sauvignon Blanc as I've tasted in a while, while the 2012 Chardonnay (c£25), perhaps still a little too young, had an engaging delicate oakiness - a real indication of how Australian winemakers have discovered the attraction of restraint.

Interest in Riesling, the great and underappreciated German grape, has been revitalised by dry examples from Australia, particularly Eden and Clare Valley. Grosset Wines are a producer active since the early 1980s; winemaker Jeffrey Grosset considers 2013 to be the best Clare Valley vintage he's ever experienced, and the wine we tasted was from Polish Hill, one of the best sub-regions of Clare Valley (c£30). Therefore, the wine had a lot going for it, but its searingly high acidity meant that this wine possibly needs a few years before it drinks nearer its best. A more approachable Riesling came from a famous producer in Western Australia, Leeuwin, whose leading range of wines, "Art Series," features a work of art on the label each year from a local artist. The 2011 Riesling (c£20) was a complex, ageworthy wine, but still full of immediate citrus and sweet spice flavours.

In the same Art Series was the most expensive wine of the day, the 2010 Chardonnay (c£60), an outstanding wine that had everything you'd expect from a oaked Chardonnay: big, rich, toasty, with tropical fruits. Worth £60? If you've got the money, then yes. (The more affordable Leeuwin "Prelude" Chardonnay from the Wine Society gives an indication of what the premium version tastes like.)

Other than Riesling, the white grape that works best in Australia is Semillon. As Michael pointed out, this is one of the world's great grape varieties but is vastly underappreciated. It's there in Bordeaux in white blends and classic sweet wines like Sauternes, but other than it gets largely overlooked. We tasted a couple of Semillon wines, which showed how well it works in Australia. The first was my favourite wine of the day, a 2007 from Brokenwood in Hunter Valley (c£25). Hunter Valley is a region to the north of Sydney, its inhospitable climate as northern as quality wine gets in the country, but which is known for producing great Semillon. This was a fantastic wine: so complex and developed, yet its fruit fresh and young, a wine capable of lots of further ageing. The other Semillon was part of a blend with Sauvignon Blanc, as is common in Bordeaux whites. Produced biodynamically by Cullen in Margaret River, Western Australia, this was an unusual wine with 25% new oak to give it some depth and smoky flavours, as well as fragrant chamomile, thyme, and white chocolate aromas (c£20).

The grape that Australia is most famous for is, of course, Shiraz. The Eileen Hardy 2004 was a particularly interesting wine, as it demonstrated the difficulty Australia has in selling itself as a maker of premium, as well as inexpensive, wines. Produced by Hardy's, one of the country's leading brands, it retails at £40. For its quality, that's still quite a low price, but it struggles to sell. Why? Because who would pay that money for a wine by a brand? The wine was an outstanding example of a complex Australian Shiraz; identifiably McLaren Vale (to the south of Adelaide), with riper fruits than a French equivalent, it was a beautifully perfumed, elegant, mature Shiraz. Even maturer was the 1999 Jim Barry McRae Wood Museum Release. At £35-40 and fifteen years old, this represents incredibly good value. The wine is from Clare Valley; although known for Riesling, the area produces elegant, smooth Shiraz and this is a stunning example, with black fruits, leather and meat, coffee and floral flavours.

As all the great white wines we tasted showed, Australia isn't just about Shiraz. Cabernet Sauvignon is known for its association with Coonawarra (c£16), but it's in Margaret River, Western Australia, that the grape arguably reaches the heights of Bordeaux. The Vasse Felix Heytesbury (c£40), from the area's oldest producer (established 1967), was outstanding and a fitting climax to the day. As with many of the other wines, it demonstrated that the French concept of terroir is very much present in a New World country such as Australia, representing the qualities of the grape and the wine's specific area - and showing also that expensive Australian wine is very much worth it. 

The day's tasting was exhaustive (and exhausting) - and we had two days of other New World wine to follow. None quite matched the extensive, exceptional line-up of Australian wines, but I'm now on my way to California to explore fully the great wines of that region. Expect lots of blogs about sunshine and wine. I'll try not to gloat too much.

 

Diploma Exams

I'm just two months into the Diploma and I've done three exams already. There's been some intense studying going on and it's a relief I can finally sit down with a glass of wine (Pieropan Ruberpan Valpolicella, since you're asking) and relax. Our next exam isn't till June, so I'm not sure why the WSET have found it necessary to cram these three very different exams into such a short period of time. Anyway, here's how they went...

Wine Production

The Diploma starts, obviously, with Unit 2 (out of 6), which focuses on all the technical stuff - what happens in the vineyard and the winery - the building blocks to everything we go on to study about wine. We took this exam in February and I wrote about it then. I passed with distinction, which I won't be doing for these next two exams.

Sparkling Wine

The next exam was Unit 5, on sparkling wine, which we had to study in conjunction with Unit 4, spirits. It was hard studying these two completely different and equally vast topics together. The amount of information we had to process, let alone the amount of drinks we needed to try, in just the space of a month, was at times overwhelming - not forgetting that we have other things to do in our lives as well. I was helped by going to a series of trade tastings where I sampled all the sparkling wine I could and by a blind tasting of nine spirits very kindly arranged by Sam of Manchester House. All that work doesn't quite prepare you for the pressure of the exam itself, though.

Both the sparkling and spirits exams are in the same format: three drinks to taste blind and three subjects you to have write a paragraph on. The exam's 65 minutes, so you have roughly just ten minutes for each drink and question. I decided beforehand to tackle the written answers first to get the factual information out of the way and, for the sparkling wines, to allow the wines to warm up and the aromas to become more apparent.

That cunning plan fell to pieces with the first question, which caused a wave of panic to rush through me as I read it. "CM (Coopérative-Manipulant)" was all it said. First question I asked myself as I fought off the panic: what's a Coopérative-Manipulant? Second question: even if I remember what one is, how do I dredge up enough information to write an answer? (Each question is worth twenty-five points, so you pretty much need to say twenty-five things.) Third, and final question, How and why would the examiners ask this question? A bad day at the office that they decided to take out on the whole world of Diploma students?

After the exam, we all clustered together to work out how we should, or could, have answered that question. First off, we reached for our study guides to see what it said about Coopérative-Manipulant. Here's what we found:

That's it, and half of that definition was the question. However, the WSET advise that we read other material to deepen our knowledge so when I got home I looked at the recommended further reading, Christie's World Encyclopedia of Sparkling Wine. This book is exhaustive and here's what it says:

Slightly more helpful, but that's not the only book I've got for further reading. We got sent a copy of the Oxford Companion to Wine with our study materials, and this is our go-to book. It did expand on the above entries a little.

Even with these books to hand, I'd be hard pressed to write a detailed answer and in exam conditions it was an arduous task requiring some imagination. What was particularly frustrating was its close emphasis on a term from a traditional wine-making area, rather than stretching out to newer areas. I was all prepared to write about Argentina (Moët & Chandon are just about to release their first Argentinian wine in the UK - one of a million facts I never got to use) or the issues around quality New Zealand sparkling wine reaching the market it deserves, but here I was blagging about two letters that sometimes appear on a bottle of Champagne.

My mood wasn't improved by the next question - "Saumur." That fashionable, high-quality, commercially important Loire Valley sparkling appellation. Oh, is that a question about France again? I was ready to answer a question about the Loire, but didn't think they'd ask about a specific appellation because they're not important enough. Wrong.

After the very specific and then the specific, came the massively broad - "Black Grapes," a subject I could have spent the whole exam writing about. I seem to have taken a different approach to answering the question than my fellow students, writing in detail about Pinot Noir and Meunier, the two black Champagne grapes, with a passing reference to Sparkling Shiraz at the end, rather than writing about every black grape used in the production of sparkling wine (and there are a lot). The difficult thing here was knowing what information you were expected to produce in just ten minutes.

I then went on to tasting the three sparkling wines, which presented fewer problems. The first was Prosecco, but from the higher quality Prosecco Superiore DOCG; the second was a fairly standard Cava, from major producer Codorníu, with a hint of toastiness at the end the only indication that it had been aged on its lees; and the third a Californian Blanc de Blancs. We didn't have to specify where the wines were from - instead asked to come to a conclusion about the quality of the wine - but I was quite pleased I had been able to work out that the third wine, by far the best, was New World and not Champagne.

Spirits

I'm not that much of a spirits drinker, though I've become more interested in them over the course of the last month, which is why I've been blogging about them incessantly. I think that's why I found the tasting (the practice) much more difficult than the written questions (the theory).

I again approached the written answers first, covering the spirits with a piece of paper in a vain attempt to mask the aromas emanating from the peaty whisky which I could smell from the other side of the room even before the bottle reached me. Before the exam, which took place a long three hours after the sparkling, a few of us joked about which obscure category would come up. So there were a few wry glances around the room when we all looked at the first question, "Cachaça," a subject we had guessed may appear as it's still not that well known but it is World Cup year. (Another relevant topic we also thought would come up was Jim Beam as it's been taken over by Suntory, a huge event in the world of spirits. It would also have given me a chance to write about Mila Kunis in an exam. Wrong again.) The second question was "conversion," probably the vaguest exam question I've ever faced. Most of my answer was about the conversion of insoluble starch into fermentable sugars in malted barley, which I hope is what the examiners were looking for. The third question was "Districts of Cognac." I read Nicholas Faith's book on Cognac last summer and answering this question was a process of distant recollection. Frustratingly, I could only remember five of the six regions (Bons Bois being the missing part). I then bluffed about soils as best I could.

For the tasting, we had to state where each spirit was from, what it was made of, what spirit it was, and how long it had been aged, all worth five marks out of the possible twenty-five. In short, get it wrong and you're screwed. The first spirit was water white and quite aromatic. At first, I smelt only tropical fruit flavours so concluded it was a white rum. But for the rest of the exam, something kept nagging me and I kept returning to it, desperately smelling it for enlightenment. I concluded it probably wasn't a white rum, but couldn't figure out what else it could be. It wasn't a vodka - too aromatic; it wasn't a tequila - no agave; it wasn't a grappa - not grapey or rancid enough; probably not a pisco - again, not grapey enough; not a Calvados - there was no age to it. There was nothing else it could be, so I reluctantly settled for white rum, knowing if that was wrong, all my tasting notes were wrong. It was pisco. Looking back, I'm not surprised that it was pisco, as it was so aromatic, but that's one tough spirit to spot. It was also one of the spirits we'd speculated, but feared, they'd ask us about.

The second spirit confused me too. It was amber coloured, with oaky aromas and dried fruits. It could either be a brandy or a rum, I thought, and I leant towards brandy because I could smell raisins and sultanas (from the grapes, I thought), because it wasn't dark enough to be a dark rum, and because I'd named the first spirit as a white rum. Answer: it wasn't dark enough to be a dark rum because it was a golden rum. From Jamaica's most famous producer, Appleton Estate, it was pretty good too.

The third spirit I barely needed to taste. Smell peat and write the tasting notes: peat, smoke, earth, smoked fish, seaweed, bonfire. After the problems of the first two spirits, I even felt confident enough to suggest it may come from Islay. The only confusing thing was its pale colour - it smelt rather than looked like a whisky. It was Ardbeg 10YO, which has a noticeably paler appearance than its neighbours Laphroaig and Lagavulin.

That tasting was one tough thirty minutes. I've done all the WSET courses and this is the first one that's focused in any detail on spirits. Not having being taught it thoroughly or consistently, the only way you could spot these three spirits with any confidence is by being a professional alcoholic. If I have to resit, that profession awaits.

Diploma Week 2 - Days 2 and 3

Over the course of these two days, we tasted around 35 spirits under the guidance of Michael Walpole, who had spent 30 years working for Diageo before joining the WSET. These tastings were intense, educational, yet quite frustrating. Intense for the amount of high-alcohol drinks we tasted, educational for the sheer range of drinks we sampled, and frustrating for the contradictory WSET approach to studying and tasting drinks.

very good or outstanding?

On Thursday morning, we began by tasting three vodkas, a forbidding and unpleasant proposition. Surprisingly, I quite liked all three and could appreciate the warming sophistication of the drinks despite their neutral, high alcohol flavours. One in particular everyone in the group seemed to like was the Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka, a Polish vodka flavoured with grass from fields that European bison graze on. It had a light colour to it, and a subtle texture. Many of us thought it was outstanding, as there was very little to fault about it, but Michael said it was merely very good because there are superior vodkas sold in Poland. If there are even better vodkas than this, we thought, then fair enough.

Later on during our brandy session, we tasted Rémy-Martin's XO. This is a very expensive brandy (£120+) from a famous Cognac name, but it's one I've tasted before in a Cognac line-up and found disappointing, especially for the price. Michael waxed lyrical about the drink, declaring it outstanding, and I couldn't help question him. 'I've tasted better XOs than this, so how can I describe it as outstanding?' I asked. 'Because it's outstanding.' 'But you said the vodka this morning was only very good because there were even better vodkas out there, so if I know there are better Cognacs out there how can I call it outstanding?' 'Because it's outstanding.' 'So why wasn't the vodka this morning outstanding?' 'Because there are better vodkas out there.'

It was a conversation which summed up what I've found frustrating about tasting during the Diploma so far. The WSET have created an objective tasting schemata, which their tutors interpret in an inconsistent and personal fashion. I think, for the large part, you've got to stick with our own judgement, using your knowledge and experience.

whisky tasting

what we tasted

In short, just about everything apart from Cachaça. Spirits I've never tasted before, spirits I've never wanted to taste before, and spirits I now want to taste again. I won't go into detail about all the spirits, as there were just so many we tasted and I plan to blog about each different spirit up till the exam next month. Although the breadth of the tasting was extensive, I felt we could have tasted more premium spirits as opportunities to taste such drinks are rare. There's also a section in the book on cocktails, but it's not something we need to study; this is a shame, as having tasted all these different spirits I'm interested to discover how they work with other ingredients.

brief highlights

Zubrowka Bison Grass Vodka (£20)

Vodka's just something I never drink; the first sniff of the Smirnoff we tasted brought back many bad memories. This Polish vodka really opened my mind to vodka, though. There was a complex elegance to it, with a long, lingering finish. The range of engaging flavours overlapped, creating a rounded texture - marzipan, lemon and lime, grass and hay, chamomile and mint, with spices from the rye. Apparently, this goes very well with fresh apple juice and a suggested cocktail was with lemon, ground almonds or amaretto, and apple juice.

Pusser's Blue Label Navy Rum (£30)

Now here's another drink - dark rum - that not that long ago I wouldn't have gone near, but a brief taste at hangingditch of one last year gave me an idea of the depth and complexity of the drink. This was confirmed by this astonishing spirit, which British sailors used to drink a pint a day of. The flavours were rich, deep, and intense with lots of dried fruits (figs, prunes, and dates), and Christmas cake. The treacle and toffee sweetness came from the raw material, molasses. Its colour comes from ageing in old Bourbon oak barrels, making the spirit toasty and smoky, with cinnamon and cloves spices. Yet in the midst of all this dark complexity were light tropical fruit flavours of banana and melon.

El Dorado Special Reserve 15YO Demerara Rum (£40)

And Pusser's wasn't even the best dark rum we tried. This Guyanan rum has won plenty of awards and has lots of similiar complex flavours, but with an added depth and finish, with a creamy vanilla texture also coming from the oak, as well as chocolate and coffee. I'll be exploring the world of dark rum with some pleasure.

Johnnie Walker Black Label (£25)

Spirits are all about fashion. Blended whiskies like Johnnie Walker are highly sought after in other parts of the world such as Asia; in Britain, they're seen as yesterday's drink - it's the Single Malts that are sought after. I've drunk plenty of Scotch, but never even considered trying Johnnie Walker - now I will. This was simply superb: a complex combination of all the other Scotch whiskies we tried and a prime example of the art of blending.

am I now an expert?

You'd hope so, having tasted so many spirits. However, there's still a lot of work to be done before the exam next month: learning to distinguish between each spirit, recognising the raw material, and remembering the vocabulary. We had a mock blind tasting at the end of the final day; I correctly identified the grappa and tequila, but thought the Bacardi was a vodka. The hardest thing is distiniguishing one mediocre drink from the other - not the kind of revision I really want to be doing...

I didn't drink a drop

 

Diploma - Week 2, Day One

the exam

A mere three-day week this time, after the opening five-day slog in January. It opened, however, at 9am with the first exam of the course, on Wine Production. I've slaved over the Study Guide, pored over David Bird's excellent Understanding Wine Technology book, and made copious notes; stared at pages trying to remember the difference between flash and tunnel pasteurisation, finally figured out the differences between various rootstocks, and hit a complete blank at understanding all the trellis systems; and at least a week before the exam got to the point where it was impossible to digest any more.

The exam itself wasn't much different from what I expected: badly-phrased questions trying to catch students out on topics I knew I hadn't quite fully grasped. I'm sure I did OK, but looking through the trickier questions afterwards it was annoying to see that I'd picked the wrong option for quite a few of the ones I'd narrowed down to 50/50 - though some of them are still impossible to figure out even having looked at the Study Guide.

the fizz

The exam was followed by twenty-one sparkling wines, which was a great way of forgetting about the early-morning stress. Our tutor for this day was Michael Buriak, who had quite a dry wit and spent his time focusing on the wines rather than the theory. I found this very useful, as I don't drink sparkling wine very often and really needed guidance through all the various styles and how to describe them - the theory I can learn at home.

For instance, whenever I taste champagne, "apple" is the fruit I invariably end up using to describe it, but that feels so limited. Now I know that there are lots of ways to describe that consistent apple taste in champagne: bruised apple, baked apple, cooking apple, fresh apple, ripe apple, red apple, ripe red apples, crème brûlée. It'd still be nice if there were some other fruits in champagne, though.

I've also always thought using words like brioche incredibly pretentious, but they are necessary. You have to mention the autolytic character if it's there (and if it's not, then point out its absence), which comes from extended contact with dead yeast cells: yeast, lees, biscuit, bread, brioche, toast, pastry, fruitcake. I don't think any of this makes it any easier to describe uninteresting wines, but it gave me a lead into how to define wines of some quality. The day also confirmed that terms such as "Brut" are meaningless when compared to still wines, as most sparkling wines are off dry.

wines of note

Billecart-Salmon Champagne Brut Rosé NV
We sell this wine at hangingditch, though I've never had a chance to taste it before. It was outstanding, with beautiful red fruits and complex autolytic characteristics. This was one of several wines of the day which pointed towards the potential depth of non-vintage champagnes. (£60)

Jack Rabbit Sparkling White Zinfandel
I only include this because I didn't even know sparkling white Zinfandel existed. If you want a wine that tastes of a watermelon lollipop, then this is the one. It sells for £2.29. Seriously.

which one's the sparkling Zinfandel?

Tesco's Cava Brut NV
This was one of three examples of entry-level sparkling wines and was truly awful. The two worst wines on the course so far have been from Tesco. (£4.49)

Waitrose Champagne Brut NV
This non-vintage champagne from Waitrose was a much more interesting and impressive example of a supermarket label than the Tesco Cava, albeit at a higher price. Complex autolytic notes (yep), bruised apples (yep), and truffles (a fancy term for mushrooms and one I shall now use whenever possible). (£19.99)

Cloudy Bay Pelorus 2008
Cloudy Bay are so famous it's possible to forget they produce high-quality wine. This has spent four years on its lees and is still a young wine. Unlike an equivalent champagne, it has flavours of stony fruits (peach and apricot), but with autolytic characteristics and, yep, baked apples. (£18.99)

Bollinger Grande Année 2004
By this point, I'd given up spitting. Bollinger are one of Champagne's most famous names and this wine was pretty special, disgorged only in January last year, meaning that it had spent eight years on its lees. The whole shebang of champagne flavours were in this wine, and more: mushroom AND truffle, smoke and toast, bruised apples and toffee, and old brioche. That's right, old brioche. This is some wine, but best drunk now. Good job I was on hand. (£60)

 

 

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!