Should wine writers be certified?

WINE TALK
21

Yes they should. But I hope no one who agrees would suggest they couldn’t write about the subject until they did so. And this also assumes a good certification process below MW exists.

22

How much more comfort would I have when buying a wine that has 100 certified points by a certified tasted.

23

Little did my parents know Brian that there would be a Ron Jeremy and John Holmes in the porn world. Unfortunately I’m hung like a cashew.

24

I responded via PM. I’m absolutely loathe to do anything public which would drive any traffic to that site.

25

Though I think that the idea is crazy to require certification, in no way will I look down on someone for having (or not) a “formal” wine education. I have have the CSW certificate, but that was more of a structured way for me to learn the wine regions and laws of Italy and such. I don’t think it has helped one bit with my writing, but I do think that it might provide some sense of “expertise” to people that don’t know about my self-taught knowledge or industry experience.

26

I don’t think they should get certified but if they rate the wines it should be done blind and no more than 10 wines in a tasting flight. I don’t know how anyone could trust scored wines that are not blind and are tasted in a sea of hundreds of wines in a matter of a few hours.

27

Education is a good thing. Experience is a good thing. Minimizing samplings is a good thing. Certification requires somebody or some panel to determine who gets certified. Of late, who do you trust to establish the minimum requirements or certify somebody? Won’t work unless you want cookie cutter wines.

28

+1

29

This was one of the funniest topics I’ve ever seen here. pileon

30

I think not, but I hasten to add that there are a few wine critics out there these days that are “certifiable”! (Present company excluded, Roy!)

Or maybe one could use the certification in the same way that a vote of no confidence is used in the parliament setting. If the readership of a major wine publication begins to suspect the opinions of its critics, it can demand that the critic sit for the MW exams and publish the results!

31

That’s what’s funny about wine. It’s like you pass Kindergarten, and go straight for your doctorate. Hence why there are fewer than 300 Doggie Howsers out there.

32

Geez, now I’m curious. Does this have anything to do with the letters K and R…?

33

I’m not sure about this. WSET Diploma (a 2-3 year program) is a required prerequisite (almost always) to begin the MW study program (3 years minimum). Before one takes WSET Diploma I believe they must have passed WSET Advanced (kindergarten? maybe), for which there is no required prerequisite. Of course, use of the term “advanced” there does encourage many to take WSET Intermediate first (now that really is like kindergarten). That seems like a few steps to me. Even just looking at Diploma, it seems like a pretty serious program. Similarly with MS (Master Sommelier for those out there who have earned those letters another way), there are several steps (Intro, Certified, Advanced, Master). I think there are so few MWs and MSs more because the exams are f#@%ing difficult and the study programs alone are intense enough to scare off quite a few candidates. As far as “good” certifications below those levels, I think WSET Diploma is one (and it is geared towards improving one’s skill at writing about wine), as well as the Advanced level Sommelier certification. I might also point out that CWE is not an easy one to get. A bit of thread drift here, as I’m not saying wine writers need any of these, but I was a little surprised by the comments. Maybe I’ve misinterpreted and either of you can clarify?

34

I really don’t care about certifications. I care about whether the person doing the writing likes the same types of wines I like. To me, wine writing is not something like medicine or law or financial planning where the average person is somewhat ignorant of the minimum professional standards and can be hoodwinked by a charleton. The only consequences of a bad wine review is that I waste a little money.

Wine writing is a pretty competitive market. As I understand it, only a relatively few wine writers really make a lot of money doing so. The market seems to do a pretty good job of determining winners and losers and I really don’t see a need for an external body to establish some types of controls here. What are the abuses we are trying to curb? The only real abuses are conflicts of interest and I do not see where that would be curbed by certifications.

35

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I was wondering if someone here would get that [thankyou.gif]

36

There are few of my younger staff going through the WSET program (one is in advanced right now) and based on what I have seen, I would breeze right through it. On the other hand, I’m terrified of the MW test. If you passed the WSET, I feel like you would need to work a vineyard/winery job for about 2 years (and would need to work in multiple areas too) to be able to have a full grasp of the MW program. Lots of very technical questions on the test, and some theoretical questions too.

I feel like there is a lot left out (and it’s not the fault of the WSET) before one can truly make that jump to the MW program.

37

Should wine writers be certified? One definition of certified is “to declare to be in need of psychiatric treatment or confinement.” Hmmmmm.
alan

38

That’s interesting but it strikes me as strange. What was the original purpose of the M.W. program? It’s generally associated with people in the sales trade - you don’t really hear about people getting M.W.'s to become winemakers. So while I can understand the need for some technical knowledge, it seems odd to require that kind of highly technical knowledge.

39

Master of Harvey certification?

40

So what does a wine credential mean (not necessarily specific to writing)? Does it mean anything, our is it just a measuring contest?