Last Wednesday’s WSET Level 4 Diploma D4 D5 exams took place in East London.
When we got there, the door was shut, so we were all hanging around on the sidewalk. I saw some familiar faces, but I didn’t walk up to say hi to them. I had to make the most of the last minutes to go through my notes once again. The sidewalk was so packed that 9 out of 10 people in the traffic looked to our direction with an “what cult is this” expression.
I’d never been a note taker, but this time, I wrote down everything about each sparkling and fortified wine mentioned in D4 and D5, from climate, soil, vineyard management, grape variety, winemaking method, maturation method and regulation in a spreedsheet on my Google Drive. Before the exam, I was glancing through the spreedsheet on my phone, which was really more efficient than reading the textbook, and the key points could be identified more easily.
Sparkler exam first.
When we entered the hall, we lined up to get 3 glasses per person, sat down, poured my own wine, and waited for the exam to begin.
Within an hour and a half, I had to answer 3 questions, taste 3 wines, and write 3 tasting notes. The second question was about a certain region in the Old World, which was quite known, but there were so many regions mentioned in D4 that I had only a slight impression about this one, so I could only write down what my slight impression told me and pray to the wine gods for luck.
I also tried my best to answer the other two questions, one of which was about a practice used after sparkling wine is made, and the other was about a certain region in the New World.
In terms of wine tasting, each wine had a distinct character, and the aroma of one of the three was so special that it really got me hooked. But if I go on here, I’m afraid I’ll be revealing too much and for sure WSET will not like it. So let me stop here.
About half an hour after we left the hall, we entered again, took 3 glasses, took our seats, poured our own wine, and the fortified wine exam began.
It was also a 3-question exam, two of which were about winemaking and maturation of several well-known regions, while the other question was about a less popular region. At least two-thirds was well-known. WSET’s kindness was being recognised and appreciated, by me at least. I was not 100% without preparation for that less-known one. And I hope I did well enough there.
I’m not going to talk much about wine tasting here. The only thing I want to share is that towards the end of the exam, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the guy sitting on my right picking up one of the three glasses of wine and draining it in one go.
Recently, every time I came to London was for the exam, always in a nervous state, never got to sleep well. And because the course I take is online, I only meet my classmates on exams in London. So every time we meet, we are certainly not at our best. OK, maybe slightly relaxed after the exam, but honestly, it’s not too pleasant when our interactions are reduced to just this. So if you’re interested in the WSET Level 4 Diploma, I suggest you not choose the online course. But then again, there aren’t many schools offering face-to-face Level 4 classes. As far as I know, in Europe they’re only available in London. The wine school I went to in Milan for Level 2 and 3 has been advertising their “coming soon” Diploma course for over 2 years now, but it is still yet to come.
If I pass D4 and D5, then D3 in October will be my last exam of the Diploma. My D3 course started two months ago, but I haven’t had time to catch up with it. Now that I’ve finished D4 and D5, I can finally focus on D3, which covers still wines from every major wine-producing country in the world. Last but not least, the D3 exam grade accounts for half of the whole Diploma grade.
Wish me so luck.
