Thoughts on WSET Levels 1-3?

Hi All -

I am new to Wine Berkserkers and interested in taking the next step in learning more about wines and developing my blind tasting abilities.

I do not work in the service industry, and my tasting experiences have been primarily with new world wines (I’m a big fan of Napa Cabernet), but during the pandemic I have been doing more reading (I have the Wine Bible and Wine Folly books and have been binge watching videos on Somm TV).

Question is - has anybody had a good experience with the WSET classes/exams? I live in Chicago and it looks like one could progress in order through the Level 1-3 classes between July and October of this year. Curious if that’s a reasonable goal, and also any other thoughts folks might have on if those classes are worthwhile.

Many thanks!

I have WSET 3, which I took about 15 years ago. Thoroughly enjoyable course with lots of studying and blind tasting on my own and I think it was twice weekly in-person classes (In Toronto, about 35-40 minutes away).
I would seriously look into how you can be grandfathered into at least the 2nd course, if not directly into level 3. Taking level 1 would very likely be a complete waste of time if you have anything above basic experience with wine.
My friend took level 2 (we took 3 together, by coincidence) and at the time he had good knowledge and admitted level 2 was pretty rudimentary for him.
I was able to take a textbook based, time restricted self learning course with an online exam, which passing at a certain score got me into Level 3 directly. I did intentionally to skip level 2. To pass Level 3 requires a fair bit of widespread geographical knowledge, which you may well already have for your own favoured regions, but likely not with wine making areas of the world you don’t have interest in. It delves into spirits a bit also (or at least it did). The exam was part theory with knowledge questions and some regional mapping (fill in the blanks sort of thing), followed by a blind tasting. I doubt you could fail the course outright if you paid attention and did some studying. I passed with distinction, which isn’t any great feat but I studied a lot on my own at night and had my wife buy lots of wines for me so I could taste blind every night or two. It was fun for me, so I thoroughly enjoyed the time & process. I was not/ am not in the industry, although I had helped out an importer friend from another province with a few tastings and sales, which put some wines in my cellar. Taking the course was just for pleasure and furthering my knowledge unrelated to my work.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten much more than I remember from the course. I enjoyed memorizing the WSET (M.S. uses the same formula) tasting protocol. I still remember it exactly even if I haven’t followed it in years.
It does help to follow the exact same process with every wine if you need or want to be critical at all (it will make you better at blind tasting). The protocol does nothing for you if you want to enjoy wine.

1 Like

Hello,

Ask yourself what your end goal is? If you want to pursue some structured learning I would suggest going for WSET 3 as 2 may not give you what you are looking for. It may be a bit of a challenge. With some basic knowledge and the time to put into studying it will be worthwhile. It will give some structure for blind tasting but that is not the ultimate goal of the course. The structure of the course has changed recently and although it follows a similar “grid” to CMS it has a different approach. It no longer includes spirits, that is a separate course, as you are probably aware of if you have researched the offerings.

I have done both CMS and WSET. If you want to know more I am happy to add suggestions.

Hi,

I took the level 2 early this year with my wife. As someone who has studied wine a lot as a hobby (books, podcasts, this and other websites, wine trips, etc), I would say that I didn’t learn much per se, but it was nice to have a structured class and interesting tastings. If you have anything more than rudimentary understanding of wine, I would skip level 1.

The structure of the course was clearly designed for individuals looking to pass the test and so the “fact after fact” aspect of the course got a little bit annoying since it limited other discussion. But there’s a lot of material and I could understand why it was taught in that way since many of the people in the group were looking to pass the course for professional reasons. (I would say the split seemed roughly 50/50 in terms of people taking the course for fun versus someone working in the wine or restaurant industry.)

We took it as a way to force us out of the house during the winter, plus to have some fun. We were thinking of doing level 3 but that was before the lockdown. I don’t want to do it from home–maybe if the course is in person again next the winter, we’ll do it then.

EDIT: I’ll add that the level 2 test does not involve tasting—my understanding is that the level 3 exam incorporates some element of blind tasting.

D. Lindlow - I am halfway through Level 2 as we speak. I’d highly recommend two things mentioned by previous posters: do not sign up for either level until you can go in person, and I’d encourage you to consider self study for Level 2. I don’t feel that I’m getting a lot out of it.

I’ve gone through the wine bible, the wine folly book and everything there is to watch on Somm TV. I recently got the Oxford Companion to Wine and the World Wine Atlas and have found self-guided research while tasting to be more accretive to my learning than the WSET L2 course material.

I tend to view wine on a gradient or spectrum. For me, a lot of the dogmatic, black and white wine “facts” trotted out don’t really hold true anymore, and this curriculum seems to contain quite a few of them. I’ve disagreed many times with the instructor saying “such and such region only produces such and such and it’s generally bad, bulk wine,” when I’ve had plenty of examples of great wine from that reason.

*caveats: I’m a millennial, and I drink my fair share of natty wine, “chillable reds” and high acid whites, but am by no means dogmatic about natural wine or “natty only.” Love nebbiolo, Santa Barbara, riesling and the Loire (chenin + cab franc).

2 Likes

At the suggestion of a friend, I started by signing up for level 2 and will be doing it online later this month. I’ll probably wait for in person before going for level 3. I’m totally doing it for funsies. I have a feeling that some of the material on regions I’m pretty familiar with (Napa, BDX, Provence, Tuscany, Chile, Argentina) will be super boring to me, but I want to do a structured program to force me to learn more about the regions I don’t know tons about (Oz/NZ, Germany, Austria, etc).

I’ve debated also doing CMS up to 1 or 2, but given that I really have no desire to work in wine (though who knows … as an entrepreneur, I’ll never say never), the service element of CMS doesn’t really appeal to me … I’m more just interested in theory and tasting.

Following up, I just got online access to my WSET 2 course - set to start end of the month - and took the wrap up module’s practice quiz (after ensuring it’s not counted and can be taken unlimited times).

I got 42/50 and only missed questions about sweet wines and random winemaking questions. Most of the questions are stupid simple (I.e. what’s the most important red grape in rioja). There are a couple random questions on there about places like South Africa and Portugal where I’m less familiar, but familiar enough to know that Chenin is a big white grape in SA, Pinotage is the common red grape, etc, so it helped me make educated guesses on the questions, but I still wouldn’t consider my correct answer coming from a place of “knowing” based on just an educated guess.

So it seems like the course will be mildly helpful to round out my knowledge base, but it also seems like if I really wanted to I could spend a few hours doing free research on wine making and sweet wines and probably start with level 3 if I were hyper concerned about maximizing every dollar spent.

Editing to add: if the material covered here starts this simple (they also expect you to study 6 hours/week to learn material like the primary red grape in Rioja), I cannot imagine how simple level 1 starts. Seems like that might be designed for somebody literally brand new to wine.

I did the WSET level 2 online during shelter in place. Like others have said it was extremely easy and the information was pretty basic. I did have wine knowledge prior to the course but it was mostly concentrated in specific areas like Burgundy so it was good to learn about Australian rieslings or the process of Port fortification. That being said I could have and it sounds like you could have passed Level 2 without any studying at all, especially since 50% is pass. Everything in the exam is in the textbook which is only 80 pages so very quick read. At the end I just wanted to know more so I’m waiting to do Level 3 in person, although I did buy the Level 3 textbook already. I’d say Level 2 is the beginner/intro course as the knowledge you leave with is what I’d consider as a basic, elementary understanding of wine production, grape varieties, and regions around the world.

Edit: Also wanted to add like you said you could easily find the correct answer through deductive reasoning. They could’ve made the test harder but an example would be where would you expect to find a white wine in Italy without high acidity? Out of the 4 answers, only 1 area would actually be in Italy…

Has anyone recently taken WSET Level 3 online? I was hoping to test for Level 3 this year but it seems unlikely in-person classes will resume within the next few months, at least here in NYC. I’m interested in taking the self-study online version, but have heard from a friend that it’s very clunky (though, her experience was 5+ years ago). Curious to hear from others.

I recently did L3 but as Home Study , not on-line. I am in NJ/Philly and we are hoping to resume in class instruction in early July so hopefully NYC is not too far behind. I have heard good things about the on-line classes and I think they give you more personal guidance and access to instructor feedback. Of course, tasting still is on you. We have a number of NY based students doing the course through our provider and coming here to take the exams.

I’m thinking of doing WSET 3 but the exam must be taken in person so I figure to wait until in person classes are available as well. The tasting portions of L2 weren’t great so I don’t imagine L3 would be much different. Also you taste way more wines in person than online. I think L2 we tasted only 8 wines vs something like 20 in person. Also the tastings could be slightly off online, what with shipping, especially now in hot weather. For now I’m just doing independent study and bought the L3 textbook.

I’m currently taking the WSET Level 3 online with the Napa Valley Wine Academy, and I’m really enjoying it. They use some of the WSET videos but integrated into their own online classroom (rather than the standard WSET online classroom, from what I’ve heard), and I think it’s great. I also originally wanted to take in-person classes, but I didn’t want to wait, so I enrolled after deliberating and I’m liking it so far, especially given the fact that they now include 12 samples of wine (each 1/4 of a standard bottle) as part of the course for calibration purposes and tasting assignments. Of course, its nowhere near what you’d taste in person (70 wines?), but who knows when the schools will open again for classes (especially given the second wave of COVID). I was in Napa a few weekends ago and things seem to be slowly opening up, so my exam is now scheduled to be in September (they removed the July test date).

Good luck with your studies!

Glad to hear that you’re having a good experience, Frank. A friend and I are looking at dates to sign up for Level 3 online through NVWC - either July-September or August-October. He did Level 2 last year and invited me to do 3 with him. Looking through the Level 2 materials, I know a lot of it already but have a few minor gaps in my knowledge, so I have a little catching up to do.

If you have more to share about what the online experience has been like, I’d love to hear it.

Update: We both signed up for the August-October dates today.

Sorry about the delayed reply, but since my course is coming to a close, I’d thought I’d share some thoughts. I went into L3 without taking L2, and while I don’t think the amount of information is that bad (coming from a biochemistry degree in college haha), being able to connect everything together is the hard part (as always). The online course at NVWA lasts for 9 weeks with an instructor, and then you have 1 additional week of self-review. Then the online platform changes to a different “study module” which consists of some more practice but no longer with dedicated instructor support. With that being said, my instructor has been great and has offered to continue answering our questions up until our test dates as long as she has the time. As for content, I’m sure you’re already aware that L2 will ask questions on what and where, but L3 really likes to ask how and why. For example, knowing the climate of Bordeaux and what grapes are permitted in the region will be enough for the L2 exam, but for the L3 exam, you will need to know why the climate is moderate maritime, and why the wines are blends and not single varietals.

Ultimately, if you already have the study materials, definitely read though the book beforehand. I enrolled at the last minute and didn’t have enough time to go through everything once before the course began, and I even though I didn’t lag behind, I definitely feel like I need some extra time to re-review everything. Some of the other people in my cohort studied extensively before the course began and took the test already (before officially finishing the course). Feel free to reach out to me via PM if you have any other specific questions. Best of luck to you! Cheers!

I took WSET 3 in 2014. It forces you to flesh out facts learned to that point. Lots of writing and demonstrating knowledge of theory with applied facts. The blind tasting portion is methodology-based. The test is challenging and a lot of work, but totally doable.

If you have a WSET 2 or CSW, then I highly recommend WSET as an advancement and good landing place if you don’t want to devote the time and resources to the Diploma or beyond.

First post here.

I’ve been wondering about taking the WSET Level 2 course online as a fun wine-related learning experience. Although I try to attend as many local wine events as possible in the Boston area, the COVID-19 pandemic has me looking for other ways to expand my knowledge of wine, and I was thinking about signing up for the WSET 2 course this fall.

Your feedback has been extremely helpful to me. Like you, there are some regions that I’m more knowledgeable about (Germany, Alsace, Austria, Bordeaux, Piedmont), and others that I would like to learn more about (South Africa, Chile, Georgia; the process of making sparkling and fortified wines). I’m not looking to get into the wine business and am definitely concerned about maximizing my $.

Therefore, your assessment of the WSET Level 2 course makes me think that I’d be best served by reading up more about the regions and winemaking processes that I’m less familiar with, and saving my money for the WSET Level 3 course. Given the blind tasting element in Level 3, I’d prefer to look forward to this in person after the pandemic (there periodically are WSET Level 3 classes in my area). In the meantime, I’ll probably benefit more by buying wine with the money that I would have otherwise spent on the WSET Level 2 course.

Just wanted to report back here that I took my WSET L3 exam in Napa last weekend (right before the fires) and I think it went alright. Thank goodness there wasn’t a short answer question on Australia! Now the wait begins…

Good luck to everyone who’s taking courses now!

Great to hear! The wait is painful. I think it was 10 weeks for ours.

I have the Diploma D3 exam coming up at the end of October…trying to study as much as possible but it is never enough LOL! My L3 had South Africa as a question.

Just got my result from WSET2 … 84% — also known as the highest score you can get WITHOUT passing with distinction. I passed “with merit” instead. My exam had lots of Port and Sherry questions which was bad luck — just not into them, and I didn’t think they’d be such a large portion of the exam, but I guess just bad luck. I feel like if I got a “down the middle” exam - like the practice exam - I would’ve been well over 90%.

That’s frustrating - but 84% isn’t shabby at all, so well done!

I’m in my last week of online class delivery for level 3, and it’s been a good experience overall. I’m very glad to have a local study partner - we only get together once a week, but I suspect I wouldn’t enjoy it as much without someone to calibrate palates and trade quiz questions with. I’m pretty close to signing up for a mid-November test date in Napa. I feel like I could probably pass the exam if I took it now, but I definitely still have gaps in several knowledge areas, and I’d like to do my best to earn merit or distinction.