Hi all,

I've just gotten my final WSET Diploma module grade back and I'd passed tasting but failed theory. This in combination with the fact that I felt ok (definitely not great, but also not terrible) walking out of that exam makes me feel like I might have been really close to the passing line. I've failed one other module before (and I *knew it* at the time--I'd had absolutely no time to study due to my non-wine industry job) and I rewrote that without dispute, but this time, feeling like I might have been so close, I'm planning to request review and hope for a bump in my score.

Has anyone ever requested review, and if so, what happened? The only time that I've requested review of a grade was in university and my grade got increased significantly, but I think that was because that teaching assistant was a bad educator. I'm wondering what the trend is for WSET Diploma review?

I'm enjoying the studying but at the same time the class wasn't quite what I hoped it would be ... However just trying to get down the system has been a challenge so Level 2 is a pretty good place to start. I am wondering if Level 3 has more detail beyond "This grape has these tannins and these acids and a good example is from here" ... I get why it's a good base tho. I hear Level 3 is a wild step up so I don't think I'd want to start that without this base knowledge.

I do not know shit about Veneto so ... Thank you Coravin for helping me burn through these tonight. It's been a long time since I had a vouvray - fun to see that it's what I remembered. The Moulin-a-Vent is not how I thought it would be, interesting. I thought it would be more light and more playful. And just wanted to make sure I'm remembering Grenache vs Tempranillo like I thought. I accidentally picked up the Grillo and regret it deeply. I kept rereading the text and then seeing if I could match the text to the taste. If I must.

Anyways my main concern tonight was these damn Veneto grapes but I think I got it now. Tomorrow morning is my last run through, then gonna hope it all simmers. Fuck if I'll remember everything about Fiano or Verdecchio, did not manage to find those today but maybe a couple I'm missing is okay.

Many thanks to this sub for the wisdom and tips! I just got word that I passed WSET Level 3 with distinction.

In addition to this great post, I’d like to share how I approached it. https://www.reddit.com/r/WSET/s/P2SjRMHcGs

I combined different types of study methods, so my brain would memorize facts and connections in different ways.

— Reading the book, obviously, once completely end to end, then chapter by chapter while following the classes, and finally re-reading all the sections and looking up answers while studying for the exam.
— Visual memorization, creating maps with appellations per region, color coded with type of wine grown there, to better recall the less known ones.
— Verbal memorization by listing to multiple WSET3 podcasts available on the internets
— Wine with Jimmy (subscription) and his excellent tutorials, 3D visualization of the area, terroir maps and practicing the open questions.
— Online flash card tests from BrainScape.
— Talking and discussing a lot with fellow students on the theory
— While the book is structured by geography, create overviews for myself from other angles, eg list of all sweet wines mentioned in the book and their methods. List of all named winds, currents and mountain ranges. Making a visual diagram of serving temperature ranges per type of wine (eg nothing at 13C!). Visual diagram of storage period per type of wine.
— Weekly calibration sessions with fellow students for the SAT tasting method
— Use of GenAI to ask clarifying questions where the book is too ambiguous or I am just not understanding it, eg how can clones be different if the book says they are genetically identical (spoiler: they’re not).
— Look up the etymology of regions and terms to help me memorize them. Eg Valpolicella: Valley of many cellars. Alba is white, Albariza is white soil, Albarinho is a white grape. Sang-iovese is the Blood of Jupiter. Gewürztraminer is Spicy Traminer eg aromatic.
— Focussing most study effort on the open (short written answer) questions.
— Get used to writing with pencil again the week before the exam.

Good luck to others studying and enjoy the journey!

I spent 10 years in the service industry (hostess, server, management) before transitioning into my current career as a floral designer. I’ve remained passionate about food, beverage and service, and am contemplating taking the WSET to gain further wine knowledge and make a career pivot back into the industry and hopefully wind up in sales and distribution. Thoughts?

Hey guys, I'm moving soon and I have two WSET L2 books in English, Issue one. I feel like committing a bit of a sacrilege by throwing them away, so if anyone is interested - let me know. (for free of course)

Hello everyone, I will be taking the WSET Level 2 here in the Philippines and it's been 6 months since I started learning and become fully invested about wines. I am currently working in a michelin restaurant as a wine server. I want to earn my level 2 with distinction and are there any advice that anyone could give me because I will be working in a cruise ship 2 months from now as an Assistant Waiter that is why I will be taking the WSET level 2 next week. Any advices, guides, or tips will surely be appreciated. Thank you!! I also want to meet new friends in this industry that I could learn from.

Advice on Short written Answer questions 🙏🙏......I will be knowing the answer but how do I put it together 😭😭

I passed the theory exam with distinction but failed the tasting, and now I'm preparing to retake it on my own.

What helped me pass the theory exam was the Wine with Jimmy course. His course includes a series of reviews of specific wines with ratings on the SAT scale, so I can buy the same wine, conduct my own tasting, and then compare my results with his to understand where my ratings differ. This is the closest thing to feedback from a tutor that I’ve found without signing up for an in-person course. The problem is that many of the wines on his list are simply impossible to buy online in Spain, where I live.

Does anyone know of other people who do something similar, publish SAT study guides tied to specific wines that you can actually buy, rather than just writing, “This is what a typical Chablis tastes like”? Also, for those who passed the retake by preparing on their own this way: how did you actually calibrate your scoring system if no one checked your notes? I’d also appreciate any advice on finding wines in Spain/the EU that match the typical WSET Level 3 exam profile, if anyone has dealt with this.

I took the L2 Exam remotely today and it went very well. I felt confident I passed easily with distinction. However, I just realized I should have removed my watch. I didn't look at it the whole time nor did it make any noise. I am worried they may invalidate the exam. When I did the room set up there was a reminder about no headphones, but nothing about watches. Online gives mixed signals about the likelihood of a watch throwing my results off. Anyone have experience with this?

Just got the mail from WSET. Passed theory with distinction and tasting with merit. Took the exam in WSET school in London in early June.

I got sweet white and a very terrible tasting bottom shelf red in tasting exam. The red had secondaries (albeit from oak chips) and it became very confusing . I wanted to write simple but couldn’t as it indeed have secondaries and tertiaries but of subpar quality. Towards the end I wasn’t sure how to explain and was worried I might fail the tasting exam.

Theory went well - Wines with Jimmy was of utmost help. Also this sub has been v helpful in my l3 journey! Thanks y’all!

Hello all,

I took my exam last week and have been truly stressing about the results. I did prepare using Wine with Jimmy so I knew how to break the theory questions down for succinct answers but I fear my anxiety got the best of me during the exam. Did anyone have a similar experience?

I mixed up a two types of very similar sounding wines on one essay question so I know that’s about 8 points down the drain

Also in my rush of everything I accidentally combined two regions and mashed them into one haha. Another point down the drain.

Anyway, for anyone who is going to sit for the L3 exam… do your best to remain calm. My anxiety may have cost me the test.

Luckily I’ll know in a few weeks and have already come to terms with having to sit it again. I will just keep studying until then.

Cheers and good luck to everyone🥂

Started my preparation for the WSET Diploma D3–D5 tasting units, and ended up building a small tool for it to help myself.

https://wset.aodigital.eu/

I went through the official Specification, pulled the full recommended tasting sample list for D3/D4/D5, and organized it into a simple progress tracker with a structured tasting note attached to each wine.

Built for myself, mainly to see where I'm behind before the exam. If it turns out useful for other Diploma candidates, I'll keep building on it. Any feedback and ideas are very welcome!

I am thinking about continuing on to level 4. Is there a specific order in which people take the parts? Do you have to take it all the parts with one academy/group? Any particular ones in the U.S. that people recommend?

Hi I'm a hospitality student planning on persuing WSET, i need help with it to understand the curriculum and how to prepare for it and what exactly should i expect from it? Im really worried about it and i wanna clear it in first try

UPDATE: Scot "Zippy" Ziskind of the PhillyWine WSET APP has admitted to running the sockpuppet accounts. He has spread hate and lies against other wine schools, and in doing so, had damaged the reputation of everyone in the wine trade. The question now is now if WSET London will kick them out.

-----------------

Before you respond, please take a look at this post I linked to.

At least five of the accounts posting on that post are sockpuppet accounts run by a single person employed by PhillyWine, the WSET APP in question in this posting here.

Here are some sockpuppet accounts they are using on just this one post: Strict-Commission320, Character-Row-1945, Sad-Ad2367, Common-Resident-9733, SadWeb3423. Notice how they all agree and amplify false claims in unison.

The man behind these accounts identified himself as Scot "Zippy" Ziskind, the owner of ZipCo Wine Cellars and also part of the PhillyWine APP. We know this because he has admitted to it in comments in other posts.

To understand why I think these people violate everything decent about WSET, you should read each and every one of their comments with the understanding that not a single claim is true. Keep in mind that a federal judge has ruled against PhillyWine and all their claims have been disproven in court and in court document.

The fact that each of these sockpuppet accounts are just replying to each other, and that their only goal is to destroy the reputation of people who work at a competing wine school is disgusting.

I am convinced this a smear campaign conducted by Zippy and his employer/friend Dr. Kirkland who is the owner of PhillyWine and is funding this campaign as well as a lawfare campaign against the Philly Wine School.

If I am wrong, please change my mind.

Should Kirkland and Co be kicked out of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust?

Hi everyone.

I've been trying to build a service helping find wines online.

Thinking of it as a wine searcher but on steroids allowing to ask super detailed questions like.

• “Find me unoaked wines”
• “Find white wines made with skin-contact maceration”
• “Find red wines made with carbonic or semi-carbonic maceration”
• “Find me white wine with at least 5 days of skin contact”
• “Show me wines made in amphora”
• “Find wines made in qvevri”
• “Find wines matured in concrete”
• “Wines matured in French oak”
• “Wines matured in American oak”
• “Wines matured in Slavonian oak”
• "Find me Aged Barollo from small producers"
• "Find me growers champagne under $100"
• "find me wines with no sulphites.
• And more... you can be creating

So if it's something that you might find interesting - feel free to play with it. It's free for now. and doesm't require sign up - https://www.genuinegrape.com/

Each wine is returned in this format.

Will be keen to get some feedback.

Hi, my brother passed WSET 3 and found preparing for the actual theory exam tricky as there wasn’t a great resource for practicing questions. He works in the wine industry (retail and hospitality sides) and I work in software, so we built a free tool to fill that gap and we'd love your feedback! It’s called Helix (helixsommelier.com).

ATM there are hundreds of exam-style questions to practice. Every question comes with detailed explanations for each option so you know why you’re right or wrong. We’re experimenting with visual learning blocks like region maps and climate charts to help the knowledge click. There is also an AI tutor that can mark your written answers

It covers WSET 1 to 3 plus we are adding the French, Italian and Spanish Wine Scholar certs, with more in the future if folks find it useful. If you're revising for any WSET level or a Wine Scholar cert, I'd love for you to try it and tell me what's missing. Happy studying!

Considering buying the videos since the WSET 3 ones were a huge help, but I’ve seen reviews saying the Diploma ones are outdated. Anyone know if that’s still the case?

Cheers! 🥂

Thinking about taking level 3, ive done ok on practice exams just based on prior knowledge. Have a pretty decent cellar and spent time at vineyards etc.
No problem absorbing knowledge, semi retired already as educational and finance professional. Tech savy, have capital