The race is run, the die is cast. It’s all over but the waiting. And–because WSET exam processing times are reportedly hovering around the 10-week mark–there’s going to be a lot of waiting.
So, my wine-blog friends, you and I both will have to wait to see if The Wine Fairy earned her Wine and Spirit Education Trust Level 3 Award in Wines pin. (I know, the suspense is terrible!) But first, here’s my last little diary entry on my WSET 3 classroom experience…including all the details I can safely spill about the famously onerous test.
The Final Stretch
On Saturday and Sunday, I take my seat for the final eight hours of class at the Dallas Wine Education Center. We’ve done lectures and practice tests and numerous tastings, and have reached the tail end of the curriculum: The remaining still wines of the New World, sparkling wine, and fortified wine.
My knowledge of the Southern Hemisphere is admittedly pretty shaky. So I lean forward in my seat, trying to gather up the last bits of geographical knowledge needed to supplement a brain that has been playing maps of Burgundy and Tuscany on repeat.
Europe has many of the classic wine styles and appellations. Can’t afford to neglect them! But detailed exam questions on newer regions are a constant–and growing–possibility.
One of the things about WSET, as opposed to some other wine qualifications, is that they really try to be both global and contemporary in their curriculum. The course materials and exams get updated regularly to emphasize the topics they feel that wine professionals need to know about. Wine styles change, and so do market conditions.
Compare different editions of the textbook side-by-side and you’ll see those shifts reflected: Out with Madeira and Retsina, in with climate change and Chilean Chardonnay.
All of that makes sense. But WSET’s global perspective can also be maddening when it’s not your perspective. The facts that wine pros here need to know and the facts that are tested by WSET don’t always align. For example, Napa Cabernets (and to a lesser extent, Paso Robles blends) are a huge part of the ostentatious, beef-loving wine culture in my home state of Texas. But the whole of California barely fills a couple of pages in the textbook.
On the other hand, WSET is gaga for varietal Semillon and fortified Muscats, which are two wine styles that I can’t often taste locally, even if I try. Getting the most of your Level 3 class often requires a bifurcated strategy: Learn what you need to know for your own wine enjoyment (or career), and also what WSET wants you to know in order to pass the global exam.
Speaking of Semi-yawn…
We taste blind in class, for the most part. I have a general idea of what tasting samples are likely to be on the syllabus. (It mirrors the textbook.) But there are several dozen possibilities, and I don’t know what order they’ll be poured in over the four weeks of class.
I’m certainly not thinking about young Hunter Valley Semillon when I reach for the first wine of the day. I haven’t even seen one before. (I did get to try a 20-year-old Tyrell’s Semillon at TEXSOM this summer. It was so transformed, so rich with honey and toast that Advanced Somms in the room were mistaking it for aged Riesling.) But the sharp, thin-nish wine in the glass this morning is unknown territory.
We sniff and swirl. The silence stretches on. So, I volunteer my tasting note first: This wine is pale and youthful and shy on the nose, with a faint bit of citrus and grass. On the palate, biting acidity (2.9 pH, like lemon juice, confirms our teacher) and a puckering, malic green-apple flavor without depth.
Is it Picpoul? I think to myself. No, probably not–we’re already finished with the France unit. I have no idea what this wine is, I confess to the room. I declare it to be simple and lacking in fruit, plenty high in acid but otherwise not age-worthy.
Guess what? It is actually age-worthy, I’m told. Huh?
Later, the instructor poses the thorny question to the school’s owner: Level 3 students don’t need to suss out the varietal/region, but they do need to assess its aging potential. How would they do that, in this case, without first identifying the wine? She sighs and says, “For WSET, you will need to know Hunter Valley Semillon very well.”
Aargh–I hate it! But the mistakes, the frustration, the illogical exceptions–these are all part of the fun, I’m slowly realizing. I’m so glad I opted to take the course in person. I’ve never gained so much from tasting in a group setting.
I’m learning to identify and describe wines more accurately, of course. But I’m also learning to heal my ego quickly and jump back in. To listen to feedback and understand the nuances of different people’s perceptions. And to remember I’m here in a sunny classroom in a big busy city, tasting all morning with people who are just as wine-mad as me.
A Sparkling Day
My favorite flight of the weekend–perhaps of the entire course–is Saturday’s outlay of sparkling wines. There are five glasses of bubbly on the mat in front of us, each popping and gurgling languidly, or with verve.
“Mimosa hour! Who brought the orange juice?” my classmates joke. We’re all eyeing the wines with anticipation. Whether a super-somm or amateur, every wine person knows that bubbles are irresistible.
We taste through a Prosecco, an inexpensive Cava, a Champagne, a premium Anderson Valley sparkler, and a fragrant Moscato d’Asti. They’re all…beautiful? True to style, flavorful, and (most importantly, to my exam-addled brain) readily distinguishable.
Tank method versus traditional method, cool climate versus moderate, Brut versus bone-dry. You can read about these things in books, but lining them up and tasting them side-by-side is the best way to fully grasp them, without a doubt.
I’m also grateful for Sunday’s Port and Sherry tasting. I love fortified wines–especially old Sherry!–and they are also fairly rare in wine stores and bars here. Although Level 3 candidates don’t need to have anything more than theoretical knowledge of these wines, tasting them helps bring the (sometimes dry) textbook to life.
Two Sherries and two Ports are the only tastings on Sunday’s schedule. The last part of class is reserved for a last-minute exam pep talk and any final questions before Test Day.
Exam Time!
Thirty-two hours of classroom time, hundreds of pages of notes and flashcards, and ten months of study have finally brought me to this day: The WSET Level 3 exam.
“What are you going to do after the test?” my wife asks me. “Drink a whiskey,” I say. “Ooh, or an aged rum! Cask strength!”
And it’s true: A short break from wine sounds really nice. Worried about un-calibrating my ability to discern alcohol levels in wine, I’ve avoided spirits entirely for the last couple of months.
We will take Sunday’s exam in two parts: A 30-minute Tasting exam of two wines, and a two-hour Theory exam of multiple choice and written questions.
It’s commonly said that the Theory exam is by far the harder of the two, but that the typical WSET student frets more about Tasting. In this regard, I am definitely typical. I’ve spent more study time on Theory, probably–but have experienced far more angst over Tasting.
Blind tasting is hard and it’s intimidating, even for experienced pros. It feels like you’re out to prove not just your own skill, but the whole concept of objectivity in wine tasting.
Candidly, I do think I’m a reasonably good taster. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t be writing a wine blog, tossing out reviews and tasting notes all the time. But demonstrating that ability in an exam setting is a whole different level of scary.
Following internet advice, I rinse my mouth with a crappy un-oaked Chardonnay from the fridge before leaving the house. (Don’t want to be shocked by alcohol or acidity on the first exam wine.) On the car ride over to the school, I’m rifling through notes, scanning the textbook’s index frantically, as if five more minutes of study is going to make the difference.
There’s about six of us Level 3 candidates testing today. (Five? Seven? By this point, my tunnel vision is so bad, I barely notice who else is in the room.) Some are making our first attempt at the test, while some are re-sitting the Theory portion of the exam, having previously passed Tasting.
Two empty glasses sit on each desk. Notes are put away. IDs are checked. Wines are poured, exam booklets handed out. What follows is the fastest two and a half hours of my life.
So How Did It Go?
Tasting first: Yeah, I’m proud of the Tasting paper that I handed in! 😎 The exam wines–although we were not told what they were after the exam–seemed to both be distinctive, familiar world styles. They weren’t too difficult to describe and assess.
Theory: I’m feeling rather confident about that paper, too. That being said, I’m very glad I crammed as much as I did. I expected the Theory exam to be hard, but it exceeded my expectations by being really hard.
I’d even go so far as to say my Level 3 Theory exam was mean. Mean, but technically fair. Every topic I was asked about was covered somewhere in the textbook…but still. Mean.
It’s really harsh how the wine facts that you think are important may not show up at all, while some regional minutiae can make up the biggest part of a 25-point essay question. It sure can, and in this case, it did.
Hoping to use the multiple-choice section to shore up your overall Theory grade? I wouldn’t rely on it. Those 50 questions were quick to read through, easy to understand–but highly specific and occasionally tricksy. They really test your wine-fact retention at a detailed level. Drawing on general knowledge or skimming the book is probably not enough to eliminate more than half of the possible choices for any given question.
Sub-regions, soil types, in-depth explanations of specialized wine-making styles, viticulture techniques, map questions, label questions, service questions, geographical features from around the world. It’s all fair play. And you have to get down all your written answers quickly, by hand, in a concise and logical way. I thought I over-prepared for the exam…but it turns out I may have prepared just enough.
As I mentioned before, it’s going to be a loooooong wait for official results–but I’ll be sure to share them here as soon as I can. Big thanks to Dilek Caner MW and Travis Perez DipWSET for running a great class. Thank you for reading, and best of luck to all my fellow certification-seekers! ❤️
Wines Tasted:
Brokenwood Semillon (2022) – Hunter Valley, Australia
Bedrock “Old Vine” Zinfandel (2022) – California
Santa Julia “Torrontés del Mercado” (2023) – Mendoza, Argentina
Luca Malbec (2019) – Uco Valley, Argentina
Primus Carménère (2020) – Apalta, Colchagua Valley, Chile
Zardetto Prosecco Brut (NV) – Italy
Segura Viudas Brut Cava (NV) – Spain
Billecart-Salmon “Le Réserve” Champagne (NV) – France
Roederer Estate Brut (NV) – Anderson Valley, California
Saracco Moscato d’Asti (2022) – Italy
Valdespino “Innocente” Fino Sherry – Macharnudo Alto – Jerez, Spain
Gonzalez Byass “Viña AB” Amontillado Seco Sherry – Jerez, Spain
Dow’s 10-Year Tawny Port – Porto, Portugal
Ferreira Late Bottled Vintage Port (2015) – Porto, Portugal
What is it like to take a WSET Level 3 class in person? I’ve written all about it! Here’s Week One, Week Two, and Week Three of Level 3.
I also previously wrote about my Level 2 experience! You can view all WSET-related posts here.
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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