What affects aromatic nose intensity? (Recommendations for Chenin blanc, Viognier, Riesling etc)

[Keith_A_k_e_r_s]

@Otto_Forsberg

@Keith_A_k_e_r_s

This is mostly correct (as someone that is about to apply). You do have to be in the business but you also need to hold A diploma or something equivalent. If not, then you really need some heavy hitters to vouch for you.

I certainly think you could handle stage 1 from what I’ve seen (though I’ve been told that they are quickly changing that). Stage 2 is a very different beast though and there is a reason that they allow for up to 7 years to get through it.

What I’ve learned is that it is a very different level of thinking. WSET Advanced is kind of see topic, answer topic. Diploma is putting much more depth and context into it all. MW is going well past Diploma and is about thinking very much above Diploma and adding in much MUCH more nuance. Just my observations from having been to 2 1 day seminars on it all and talking with MW candidates

Do you know if one has to be ITB when doing the entrance exam? I have 7 years of history ITB, but I’m not ITB right now. I’ve also done “something equivalent” of WSET Diploma - ie. a Finnish sommelier course that runs for 1½ years including two separate week-long visits to wine regions that also include a few days of work at a winery and vineyards.

And indeed I know my biggest problem with MW studies would be the business part. I know I know wines like the back of my hand, but the MW approach to business is a wholly different thing. Not that it would be incomprehensible to me, but because I come from a country with alcohol monopoly and the MW system views the world from a very British stand point. I know one Finnish MW applicant who got his dissertation discarded because it was unfeasible and wasn’t based on any realistic views of how the market works. The problem with this was that he was actually working in the alcohol sales of a big Finnish beverage company and all the data was based on the company’s sale and purchase numbers and Finnish market behavior.

So learning how the MW views how the wine market works (not how the Finnish wine market works) might be the biggest new thing I would need to learn. That’s something I know very little about, because that is something that has never concerned me whatsoever.

But otherwise I’m pretty familiar with the MW way of thinking. WSET Advanced is still pretty fundamental-level stuff, whereas the MW level is more akin to how one would approach a subject at a university level. Having done my master’s in language and literature, which includes something like 4-5 years of literary analysis, I’m pretty sure I could handle the same thing when it comes to wine. After all, I’m more interested in analyzing wine than literature.

I’ll answer this to the best I can (and you likely want to seek out an MW located in Finland or the Baltics (I feel like there have to be a few) to give more depth to this). I’m just someone who will apply this year and keep on applying until I get into the program or run out of MWs to vouch for me(I think I have 3 right now I can reach out to and could have 5 in two years time).

From what I understand, you don’t need to be full time itb, but somewhat consistently in it for 3 years. Writing most certainly counts, so if you have a blog going back a few years, that should theoretically count as Media.

Most importantly, you’ll need someone of stature in the industry to vouch for you and in reality an MW.

The business side of things could be something very new for you and when I finally passed Unit 3 for Diploma, Diploma was leaning much much more heavily into SWOT analyses and the like (which play into strengths of mine) than they had when I first sat for Unit 3 in 17. WSET and IMW are extremely focused on making the industry of wine much stronger and having us be leaders in the business. Practical and Theory are certainly extremely important, but it’s about applying all of that into the greater spectrum.

I have little doubt that you can handle the practical and theory at stage 1. I can’t and won’t predict stage 2 because that is pure hell and where they drop the most amount of candidates. Stage 3 is your paper and in reality, but the time you find out you passed stage 2, you most likely will become an MW because your paper has already been approved and you’ve at least done some sort of framework with an MW for your topic.

[Otto_Forsberg]

@Keith_A_k_e_r_s

I’ll answer this to the best I can (and you likely want to seek out an MW located in Finland or the Baltics (I feel like there have to be a few) to give more depth to this). I’m just someone who will apply this year and keep on applying until I get into the program or run out of MWs to vouch for me(I think I have 3 right now I can reach out to and could have 5 in two years time).

Fortunately I know more or less personally at least three Finnish MWs and communicating with all the five Finnish MWs is no big deal. So yeah, I think I should have no problems with this one.

@Keith_A_k_e_r_s

From what I understand, you don’t need to be full time itb, but somewhat consistently in it for 3 years. Writing most certainly counts, so if you have a blog going back a few years, that should theoretically count as Media.

Lol if writing counts, I wrote for something like 6-7 years a wine blog that was for some time the most-read wine blog in Finland. Nowadays I only do Instagram and WB posts, though. But unless they need me to be doing something topical somewhere right now, it shouldn’t be a problem with this much experience.

@Keith_A_k_e_r_s

WSET and IMW are extremely focused on making the industry of wine much stronger and having us be leaders in the business. Practical and Theory are certainly extremely important, but it’s about applying all of that into the greater spectrum.

This much I’ve understood. Fortunately I’ve worked also at a wine importer, so business side is nothing new to me per se. The bigger problem is just going to be understanding how IMW want us to show that knowledge, because I’m pretty sure that even if I had perfect knowledge how things work in the wine business here in Finland, this knowledge wouldn’t help me pass an MW exam.

@Keith_A_k_e_r_s

I can’t and won’t predict stage 2 because that is pure hell and where they drop the most amount of candidates.

I’ve heard this before. However, if I ever really was planning to become a MW, I could just go and ask those couple of MW acquaintances of mine how it was and what it encompasses. I know that if these people could pass the whole thing, it shouldn’t be too big of a deal for me!

[brigcampbell]

@John_Morris

To address the OP, Jaime Goode, in an article maybe 10 years ago, said that residual sugar boosts aromas because it makes the volatile compounds come out of solution faster than they would in a dry wine. (I guess, in a sense, they compete with the sugar in the liquid.) That explained to me why dry riesling has very little of the aromatics you get in even a barely off-dry riesling.

Also explains why a gram or 2 of dosage can make a big difference from a zero sparkler.

[AndrewL]

While I cannot reply to all of you, thanks for all the discussion, I guess there is no shortcut (besides focusing more on off dry/sweet wines) to looking for producers/regions on the more aromatic side! I’ll just have to taste through and look at CT notes.