JASGBI Article - Take a Different Course: Wine Wisdom at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust®

Take a Different Course: Wine Wisdom at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust®

Ed Fitzgerald, General Surgery Registrar

Twitter @Diathermy

Published in the Journal of the Association of Surgeons of Great Britian and Ireland, 
Number 39, March 2013 (Full print article pdf can be downloaded here)

It’s a question of nature or nurture. No matter how diligent a student you were at medical school nor how prolific your PubMed citations have become since then, not all of us spent our student days scratching an academic itch. So why is it that so many of us still end up testing ourselves with new educational challenges? MBA, anyonees? MBA?cademic itch. So how is it that so many of us end up needing to challenge ourselves with ? LLB or MSc? Perhaps the intrinsic nature of medics draws us all into the pursuit of lifelong learning, or perhaps we have all become indoctrinated into it by the system. Or both. Or perhaps some of us just really need a Consultant job. Either way, next time you feel an itch developing for a postgraduate course, why not pour some wine onto it to calm things down? Just sign up for a wine tasting course.

Now I’ve said before to anyone who’ll listen that medicine and wine are natural partners (although not necessarily at the same time). Doctors as a professional group have an unusual (or ‘worrying’, as my friends often say) interest in alcoholic beverages of all varieties. Whether this is nature or nurture is again debatable, as I fear a degree of willing indoctrination also occurs in this area at medical school. Nonetheless, learning about the art, science and culture of wine can be a challenging academic pastime. What better way to quench a thirst for knowledge than with such a pleasurable and social activity as taking a wine tasting course?!

I say this with some modest experience, having recently completed 15-weeks of evening classes at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust in Bermondsey Street, London*. Having spent a good part of my medical school holidays driving (or rather, navigating) my family crazy around the vineyards of Europe and ‘exploring’ (wine euphemism alert: ‘exploring’ = drinking) the world of wine, I fancied enrolling on what essentially amounted to a justification for opening a good bottle of wine on a Monday night. As if most of us need one.

The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET®) is a Registered Charity (No. 313766) and was established in 1969, long before wine courses were as fashionable as they are now. This was an era when the UK wine trade was the centre of the vinous universe, although this hub of commercial gravity may now be gradually shifting eastwards to Asia. Founded by the historical ‘Holy Trinity’ of the British wine trade, the Vintners’ Company, the Wine & Spirit Association and the Institute of Masters of Wine, WSET® was tasked with developing high quality education and training for the wine trade or those planning on joining it.

This is the way it remained for many years and in fact non-industry students only started attending their courses in 1990. Since then WSET® has developed rapidly, and is now accredited by Ofqual as a UK Awarding Body within the National Qualifications Framework (NQF). Their wine qualifications are internationally respected within the wine trade, with courses in 17 languages, exams sat in 58 countries, and 43,254 candidates attempting a WSET® qualification last year. Although most still hail from the UK, candidates from Hong Kong, USA and China took second, third and fourth places respectively last year.

Details of the different courses and qualifications offered are provided in Table 1. Timing is flexible, with many running simultaneously and participants have the option of enrolling on day-release courses, continuous blocks, or evening classes. I opted for the latter, based at the tasting rooms at the head offices of the WSET® in Bermondsey Street, London.

Table 1: Wine & Spirit Education Trust Qualifications

Foundation Level Courses

WSET Level 1 Award in Wines ·         Introductory one-day course ·         Basic wine knowledge and matching food with wine

WSET Level 1 Award in Wine Service ·         Entry level one-day course ·         Wine service and practical skills in the restaurant setting

WSET Level 1 Award in Spirits ·         Entry level one-day course ·         Basic product knowledge and skills in service and marketing

Intermediate Level Courses

WSET Level 2 Intermediate Certificate in Wines and Spirits ·         Major grape varieties and where they are grown ·         Wine styles and the production of spirits and liqueurs ·         Systematic approach to tasting with approx. 45 wines and 4 spirits ·         Minimum 16-hours of teaching delivery time, with further self-study ·         Assessment: 1-hour paper with 50 multiple choice questions

WSET Level 2 Professional Certificate in Spirits ·         Main categories of spirits and liqueurs ·         Influences of production methods on the different styles ·         Systematic approach to tasting with approx. 60 spirits and liqueurs ·         Minimum 12-hours teaching delivery time, with further self-study ·         Assessment: 1-hour paper with 50 multiple choice questions

Advanced Level Courses

WSET Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Wines and Spirits ·         In-depth knowledge of a wide range of wines and spirits ·         Factors that influence style, quality and price of wines and spirits ·         Systematic approach to tasting with approx. 76 wines and 6 spirits ·         Equivalent to A-Level / AS-Level course standard ·         Minimum 28-hours teaching delivery time, with further self-study ·         Assessment: 50 MCQs, 5 short answer questions and a blind tasting

Diploma Level Courses

WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines and Spirits ·         Internationally recognised as the premium wine and spirit qualification ·         Divided into 6 units, including business and commercial aspects ·         Systematic approach to tasting with over 250 wines and 50 spirits ·         A prerequisite for entry onto the Master of Wine study programme ·         Equivalent to University ‘Certificate’ course standard ·         Minimum 118-hours teaching delivery time, with further self-study ·         Assessment: mix of MCQ, theory papers, assignments and blind tastings

WSET Level 5 Honours Diploma ·         Attained on completing a dissertation following the Level 4 Diploma ·         Includes undertaking a literature review of the subject area chosen ·         Project length: 4,000–5,000 words

  

Before my Level 3 course commenced I received a bulky package through the post, although my initial excitement deflated quickly when I realised this consisted solely of preparatory reading rather than the fine wine I had envisaged. Nonetheless, these course materials were excellent, with a 278-page book covering the whole world of wine from regions to regulations and production to packaging. In addition to this was a comprehensive syllabus to guide your reading and a spiral-bound study guide including helpful practice MCQs and short-answer questions.

The following 15-weeks were great fun, perhaps more so for me as an interested amateur. The class of 20-odd students was a fantastically international group and split 50:50 between those actually in the wine or restaurant trade and others, like myself, just there to follow their passion. For those actually in the trade, many were funded by their companies which brought obvious added pressure to their studying. There’s a lesson in that for the NHS and our dwindling study leave…

Over the 15-weeks we enjoyed a vinous tour of all the world’s main wine regions interspersed with some of the more technical and commercial aspects of vineyards, winemaking, retail and consumption. Each 2-hour class had a particular focus and the 6 wines or spirits tasted were carefully chosen to illustrate that evening’s learning objectives. This ensured the classes remained ‘hands-on’, but also gave an opportunity to go into a detailed tasting of the wines guided by an expert in the area. Some people are naturally gifted at finding gooseberries in their sauvignon blanc and blackberries in their cabernet sauvignon. I am not blessed to be one of them. Thankfully the course teaches the WSET® ‘systematic approach’ to wine tasting. I was relived to discover that PubMed and meta-analysis were not required for this particular systematic approach, rather a stepwise analysis of technical factors such as the clarity, acidity, tannin, alcohol levels and suchlike in addition to the often-lampooned descriptors of taste and flavours.

The tasting didn’t always end at the class either; the course was a great opportunity to meet likeminded enthusiasts (another wine euphemism: ‘enthusiast’ = wine nerd) and we were soon staying on for dinner locally and organising separate wine tastings together with the excuse of ‘exam revision’. This proved to be a remarkably good excuse for popping the corks on some great wines!

The end of the course came all too quickly, and was accompanied by a not particularly welcome exam. For the Level 3 Advanced course, this consisted of 50 MCQs, 5 short answer questions and a blind tasting of two wines. Each of these required a detailed tasting note with conclusions regarding development, value and an attempt at identifying the particular wine from a range of options. A couple of sample MCQ questions are given in Table 2. The exam was not easy, set at an equivalent level to A-level / AS-Level, and I was relieved to subsequently pass; a number of other students didn’t make the grade.

Table 2:Level 3 Advanced Course Sample MCQs

Q. Which one of the following is the key factor in   determining the quality of the wines in Ribera del Duero? a) Maritime influence b) Altitude c) Summer Rain d) Cold air descending from the Pyrenees

Q. Which one of the following is a fining agent? a) Potassium bicarbonate b) Sulphur dioxide c) Kieselguhr d) Bentonite

  

What did I learn? Was it worth it? Absolutely, yes. For someone who thought he knew something about wine, this course made me realise that there are huge wine producing areas (mainly outside of Europe) that I really have embarrassingly little knowledge of. So for the enthusiastic amateur, that alone is a great reason to undertake these classes – just think of all those new wines waiting for you to broaden your palate and discover them! But more than that, the course gives you a solid grounding in other areas you might otherwise gloss over: the factors influencing wine quality, price and even aspects of alcohol law and social responsibility.

While these sorts of advanced courses don’t come cheap, you won’t be charged much more than a current Basic Surgical Skills course, and the WSET® variety tastes a lot nicer too. Put all that context and either the WSET® sourced my 78 glasses of wine for the course very cheaply, or someone somewhere is really over-charging for pigs trotters.

So no matter how severely afflicted you are with recurrent medical course-itis, there’s a lot of fun to be had from nurturing your vinous interests through evening classes such as these. Enjoyment of wine is what nature intended.

*Other wine courses are available. Always read the instructions before use.

For further information on accredited courses across the country and internationally check: http://www.wsetglobal.com/

WSET, 39-45 Bermondsey Street London SE1 3XF

The WSET® is a Registered Charity (No. 313766)

Acknowledgements

With thanks to David Wrigley AIWS MW, Global Communications Director at WSET® London, for providing the background information.