Attaining the WSET (Wine and Education Spirits Trust) Level 3 certification is a wonderful feeling. It is a test with about a 50% passing rate, an assessment that includes a tasting section, a multiple-choice portion, and a four ‘short’ answer questions. It’s that final part that most students dread…while called short written answer, each question has at least four subset questions that require some combination of name/identify, describe, explain, elaborate, and evaluate. At the end of the 150-minute test, my hand was cramping because I had written 8 full pages of facts, reasons, and justifications about Bordeaux, German, Carménère (a wine I had just put on the wine club a month before but the day of the test blanked on a couple of details), sparkling, service, and a few other topics I have pushed about of my mind. They even asked me something about the size of the glasses for Port and standard serving sizes in milliliters for a certain number of bottles! In total, I attended about 32 hours of face-to-face time with my instructor (Dilek Caner, a Master of Wine herself) and cohort, and I studied on my own approximately 90 hours. It is a feat that I am happy to be on the other side of (by the way, it took almost 2 months to get the results back!), especially having passed it with distinction, the highest recognition.
Having the WSET 3 coupled with my Certified Specialist of Wine from the Society of Wine Educators (a test, believe it or not, that I spent even longer studying for, and it helped prepare me for the WSET 3) means that I am certainly recognized as a wine nerd, or, as some say, a cork dork. Many people in the industry hold their WSET 2, which I achieved in 2022, but having diversified wine certifications makes me not only a specialist, but able to hold my own amongst other sommeliers and wine experts. I often get asked if I am a sommelier, and I always say yes. Even though my certifications don’t use that specific word, a sommelier is a person who plans wine lists and food pairings, has vast knowledge on production and varieties, and can make recommendations to customers, and that is exactly what I do. I am so pleased and excited to have hit this third level, and I am now pondering how to propel my acumen into even more extensive wine education for our Steve’s Wine Bar customers.