Study Strategies: Mastering a Wine Region

Passing the Master of Wine exam requires in-depth, detailed knowledge of the world’s most important wine regions. While knowing everything about any region is impossible, even for regional experts, students must strive to reach the constantly moving target that is mastery. Further complicating an already daunting task, the Master of Wine syllabus is quite general. There is no list of terms, regions, or names to know like there might have been for the WSET Diploma. There is no textbook to read, no information to memorize, no list of wines or tasting grid. Instead, students receive only topics—words like clones—with no other context or link to a specific region. And yet, students must prove in exam essays that they understand these topics from top to bottom by way of examples from regions all over the world. For success in the blind tasting portion of the exam, the correct identification of a wine’s region of origin is critical, along with variety, production method, commercial appeal, and quality.

Without specific direction, Master of Wine students must create their own paths to mastering a region. They are, essentially, left to devise their own syllabuses, which must include broad strategies such as visits to key regions, extensive tasting, and relentless study combined with comprehensive practical experience. Below are five critical concepts that students can utilize to enhance their understanding as they strive to master a wine region and achieve success in the Master of Wine exams.

There is an important difference between knowing information temporarily and applying that information in a meaningful way. This is a concept we all understand—to move from defining a term like empathy to having true knowledge of it requires context, personal experience, and practice. The definition, however, is the starting point.

The process that begins with recollection and becomes mastery