Lisa's Premier Wine Academy Blog

My WSET Wine Journey… Part One…The Early Years…

Once upon a time…(the year 2004…to be exact), I was a busy mom of four little boys, and a flight attendant.  I was not a wine drinker. One day, working as a flight attendant in first class, a passenger ordered a glass of wine, a Sauvignon Blanc, to be exact…I had no idea what that was! I didn’t know if he was asking for a white or red wine! The passenger said, “If you’re going to serve wine, you should at least know something about it” (with a shake of his head and a big eye roll…) I thought about it and I thought, “He’s right!” I had been pregnant or breast feeding for the past eight years, and for the first time, in a very long time, my body was my own! I wanted to learn about wine!

The next day, I took my four little boys to the bookstore, and bought “Wine for Dummies” by Mary Ewing Mulligan. (Little did I know at the time, but one day her brother, Neal Ewing would one day be my first wine instructor!)

My wine journey had begun!

Over the next few years I read every book about wine that I could get my hands on.

Fast forward to the year 2015. I discovered the movie, “Somm” (Wise, 2012).  “Somm” is a movie about a group of aspiring Master Sommeliers, through the Court of Master’s Sommeliers. This movie introduced me to the concept of blind tasting wine! “This is a thing?” And for the first time, I found out that there were certifications in wine! I thought…”I need a certification in wine! I don’t want to be just a Wino-O, I want to be a certified Wino-O!”  In that moment, my life would be changed forever!

The first night I watched the movie I said, “There’s no way…this is fake.”

The second night I watched the movie again…I was intrigued…I thought, “Wow. This is the coolest thing, ever!”

The third night I watched the movie, I looked at my husband and I said, “I’m going to be one of them!” He said, “Yeah, right.”

It took me a year of research, until I found a way that I could do it. I lived hours from any big city, in the heart of amish country. I had four boys in school, and I worked part time as a flight attendant. I did not have a lot of free time, but I was determined to find a way to do achieve my goal.

I first researched the Court of Masters Sommeliers. I learned they are a testing agency. They do not offer classes. To take their test, I’d have to fly to a city when they were offering the test. Not a big deal for a flight attendant, but how was I going to learn what I need to know to pass a test?

I continued to do research on certifications in wine. One day, I discovered Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET). What made them different from anything else that I had found, was that they offered classes that teach you what you need to know, to pass the test! I knew I needed to take a class, to be prepared to take a test. WSET was the way to go, for me.

Through the WSETglobal.com website, I found PhillyWine, located in Philadelphia. I was ecstatic to find that they offered “home study” classes. I could watch the classes live or recorded. This was perfect for me. When my work schedule didn’t permit me to be at home or when I had the kid’s activities. I could watch the classes at my convenience. I wanted to start at Level 1, but there were no Level 1 classes being offered until the next spring, (almost a year away), so I jumped in at Level 2.

I received my book and I immediately read it from cover to cover! I still remember thinking, Burgundy wine is only Chardonnay or Pinot Noir grapes??? Chablis on the bottle means it is only Chardonnay grapes? Australia makes high quality wine? I always thought Australian wine was only “Yellow Tail?” I absolutely loved my WSET Level 2 class.

Soon, it was test day! I took the train to Philadelphia and took my first test in wine. Six weeks later, I received my results!

I PASSED WITH DISTINCTION!

I was hooked!

I immediately signed up for PhillyWine’s next WSET Level 3 class.

I loved watching my weekly WSET classes, but as I watched the class on my computer, I always felt a little sad. The class looked like so much fun! As a group, the class was tasting and discussing the wines, leaning from each other, and building friendships with people who had a shared interest…while I sat on my couch alone, watching them…I always felt that I was missing out on so much, by taking my classes remotely.

The day of my Level 3 test came. First, I took the theory test. It was much more difficult than I expected.

Next, I took my first tasting exam of two wines, blind. I had to identify one white wine and one red wine. (You no longer have to identify the wines, at Level 3).

I was sure I failed. Three months later, I got my results.

I PASSED!!!

No Distinction. No Merit. But I passed.

Did I have what it takes to keep going to Level Four?

I said…”I’m going to keep going until I fail!”

Stay tuned…for the failures…in Part 2!

Cheers!

Lisa

My WSET Wine Journey…Part 2…The Failures!!

The year is 2018…and I begin WSET Diploma…

Unit 1 – Viticulture/Vinification – Pass!

Unit 2 – The business of Wine – Pass!

I was rolling right along! I’m thinking..this isn’t so hard! I’ll be through Diploma in a very short time!

Unit 3 – Light Wines of the World

Tasting – Fail

Theory – Fail

What a wake up call that test was!

Now, in my defense, back then, the entire program was very different. There was no curriculum. They literally said, “Anything, anywhere about wine, is fair game on the test”

Also in my defense, sometimes, life gets in the way of your wine journey. You have to keep everything in perspective. Wine certifications are important, but people, especially your family, are more important. There were some heavy, personal things, going on in my life at that time, and I was simply unable to prepare adequately for the test. Also now, there is curriculum to help you prepare for the test. I literally tried to memorize, The Oxford Companion to Wine, which has approximately 1,000 pages. It might have been a little too much to take on! In other words, with no guidance of how to prepare for this test, I went too broad, not focusing enough on the basics.

I thought my first failure in wine would make me want to quit. But instead, it motivated me even more! Now I knew what the test would look like, and although the test is always different, at least now I understood what I had done wrong in my preparation and now, I had direction.

I carried on…

I went on to Unit 6 – Independent Research Assignment (The Paper) – By then I had found out that you didn’t have to go in order! (I didn’t even know this!)

The subject I chose was Natural Wines. I received a Pass!

Unit 4 – Sparkling wines. Pass!

For some crazy reason I decided it was time to take Light Wines of the World, again. Weird, because most people take it last. I took it third and then I took it again, when I still had another test to pass, Fortified Wines. By this time, WSET had a curriculum to help you prepare for the tests. I spent six months studying…meanwhile, working on improving my tasting notes. By this time, the test was a two-day affair!!! I had to stay in a hotel in Philadelphia in between test days. For me this ordeal was extremely stressful, and by the time I took the two day test, I was just hoping to have passed one half of the exam. I though, if I could just pass theory or tasting…I’d be happy!

Three months after taking the test, while sitting on my jump seat, after landing in Dallas, I received an email with my exam results.

Theory: Pass

Tasting: Pass

I started hyperventilating and crying right in front of the passengers! I didn’t want to upset the passengers, so I got out of my jump seat and I ran to the galley and started sobbing! I got down on my hands and knees and thanked God for my pass. I had hoped to pass one of the two parts of the test, but I never expected to pass both parts, on my second try.

Now, I had just one unit to go! Fortified Wines. The section in the book for that unit was small compared to what I had already done! I studied for a few months and went in to take the test.

I realized during the exam that I was not very prepared for this test.

Three months later I had my results.

Tasting: Pass

Theory: Fail

You have to pass both parts of the test at the same time, so I had to take the entire test again, even though I passed one part. I gave myself a few more months and went in and took the test again, positive that I would pass this time. I was ready. I knew the material.

Backstory: during my very thorough preparation for this test, I had found some erasable ink pens on Amazon that I loved! As I always do, I checked the reviews before buying them and all the reviews were excellent. Everyone loved these pens. I bought the pens and used them during my preparation for my next exam. My notes were beautiful and neat. I could erase my notes and they looked perfect. Not like the old school erasable pens, like I had when I was a kid, that when you erased, the pen would smear all over your paper. These modern erasable pens wrote beautifully and when you made a mistake, you could just erase and rewrite. My notes were beautiful. I bought a brand new package of erasable pens, just for my test! I was ready!

I went to Philadelphia and I took my test. I knew I passed. My last test of WSET. I was done! I was sure of it.

Three months later, I received an email with my results.

Theory: Fail

Tasting: Fail Unclassified

What????? Fail unclassified? That means you did so badly, that the grader stopped grading your test when they got to the point that you couldn’t pass! How was this possible??? How could I be so prepared, and do worse than I did last time?

I went through a depression. For the first time, I felt like I was not going to pass Diploma. I had made it this far, and Fortified Wines was going to be the end of the road for me.

I took six months off from studying wine.

But being so close to finishing and giving up, gnawed at me.

I decided to give it one last try.

I studied for six months.

I went to the island of Madeira to gain experience tasting all of the grapes and the styles of Madeira.

I spent the next six months as a flight attendant, going to Madrid for work, and only drinking sherry. I became proficient at writing tasting notes for all of the styles of sherry.

I took an online class, with an expert coach in London, Jim Gore. His class gave me tips on writing essay answers and writing excellent tasting notes. His class helped give me the confidence that I needed, to give this test one more try.

Two days before taking my test, I was standing in the kitchen heating up some bread for our Sunday lunch with my now, adult, children. A thought came to me. Could erasable pens be heat sensitive? I asked my science nerd son, standing next to me in the kitchen, if it was possible that erasable pens could be sensitive to heat. He said, “The oven is hot, write on a piece of paper and put it in there and see.” I got out one of the erasable pens from my tote bag, (I had a brand new pack of pens packed and ready to go for my test) and I scribbled all over a piece of white computer paper. My son opened the oven door and got the paper close to the oven and the ink disappeared, entirely. All you could see was the depression on the paper, left by the pressure of the scribble. I wrote on another paper and put it on the dash of my car. I went into the house for a few minutes, and I came right back out. The paper was blank.

I finally had my answer. This is why I failed the last time I took the test! There is no explanation other than that God put this random thought in my head, that the pens were heat sensitive. Had God not put that thought in my head, I would have failed a second time, because of the pens that I used.

You see…PhillyWine sends the tests by air, to London. A truck then, takes the tests to the WSET Offices in London, to be graded. I took my test in June, when it was hot. There’s no doubt in my mind, that my writing had disappeared, at some point during the travels that my test booklet took, to London.

I ran to my computer to look at the reviews on Amazon, to see if anyone else had a similar story. Now, as opposed to last time I checked, there were numerous questions from people, frantically asking the manufacturer how to get their writing back on their papers. The response from the manufacturer was, you can’t get it back. There were stories of lawyers, nurses, medical students, all who had used these pens to write their notes, left them in their cars for a few hours, to come back to blank pages.

The third time was the charm. I breezed through the test. I passed with Merit (when you retest, they won’t allow you to receive Distinction, or I’m positive I would have scored a Pass with Distinction the third time!!!)

I’m actually happy that I had to take the fortified wine test three times…through that struggle, I have fallen in love with this style of wine! I consider myself an expert, when teaching this section of my classes, which I wouldn’t have been the case, had I passed the first or second time taking the test! I truly believe that everything happens for a reason! My struggles were to make me an expert on Fortified Wines. The fortified wine section of the WSET curriculum is now my favorite section to teach!

Today, I am a WSET certified instructor and teaching all levels of WSET classes in Lancaster, Harrisburg and York, Pennsylvania. If you live in amish country, like I do, you no longer must travel to a big city or take online wine classes, like I had to! And finally, I get to hang out with Wino’s, just like me! I must tell you…these classes ARE much more fun in person! (I always felt I was missing out, and I was!)

The moral to my very long wine journey story is…don’t EVER give up on your dreams! And don’t ever use erasable pen!!!!

Cheers!

Lisa