The Auswine Forum

A group of us who completed the Advanced Certificate in Sydney last year were keen to go on and do the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust – a UK-based body) Diploma in Wine & Spirits. Although the Intermediate and Advanced Certificate courses are run fairly regularly, there are more onerous requirements for the teaching of the Diploma, such that a decent number of candidates are needed to justify running the thing. I believe the Sydney-based WSET-accredited teacher has a number of potential candidates, but not enough yet. So, although I have no commercial involvement, derive no income or other benefit, etc., etc. I thought I’d encourage old holders of the Advanced Cert. to perhaps investigate the www.wset.co.uk website to get a feel for the requirements and then contact the lady in question if they are interested. If anyone needs help with contact details, feel free to PM me.

PS: I gather the course takes the form of a number of monthly lectures/tastings, so it's not impossible to fly in for the night, for instance, if you're a bit remote (or if your employee will stump up for the fare...)

PPS: Hope this isn't too 'commercial' a post...

cheers,
Graeme

GreameG

I'm there with bells on!

Did my Advanced back in 2004. Keen to do the Dioploma ever since. Looks like it will be a great thing to be a part of.

I really hope we can get this together as I don't really want to do it as a distance education thing.

I can also highly recommend the Intermediate or Advanced courses to anyone who is interested, especially if you want an international perspective.


Billy B

Hmmm, this does seem interesting.

Graeme, do you have any info on the intermediate or advanced course (or even maybe beginners if that's where you have to start).

Can you post a link or something? I've been thinking about a more formal thing for some time but as always, my main problem is finding the time.

yeah me too. looking at the beginners course (have been in contact with Linda) but have too many work commitments at the moment.

cd

I leapt into the Advanced after doing a little research (I think the website link above will give some information) and figured the Intermediate would be repeating too many things I knew already. But it is very international in outlook, and all the spirits information came as a bit of a shock, since I don't have much history or interest there. The Advanced course ran to 10 evenings @ 2½ hours each, plus plenty of reading in the extremely comprehensive textbook in between times as well. For us down here, the course seems especially slanted towards the Old World, which may be a historical reflection of the degree to which it commanded sales in the British market. But the New World sections of the course are expanding, and although the same degree of thoroughness is not apparent yet in that part of the syllabus, you'd still better know your Central Valley AVA from your Valle Centrale DO.

I certainly found that having a reasonable working knowledge of the major French & German regions gave me a little more time to focus on the parts of Italy, Spain & Portugal where I was much lighter - and to be honest, a lot of the information I tried to memorise about the major regions in Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania I may not recall just at the moment!

There were nearly 20 of us doing the Advanced last July - slightly more ITB folks, but a few keen amateurs as well. I don't think the face-to-face component is overly demanding in terms of time, and much of it goes on tastings anyway (the notes from which I never quite got around to writing up and posting here), but you need to be able to study by yourself - a requirement I believe is emphasised even more so in the Diploma (the approved text for which is Jancis' Oxford Companion, no less.)

I'd certainly recommend it, even for those who's employers aren't footing the bill. The Diploma problem is that the course facilitator is required to arrange MWs to do the lecturing (I believe), among other onerous administrative requirements, so there needs to be a committed band of candidates. But the Intermediate & Advanced courses run several times a year in Sydney I think - the aren't the same difficulties with those.

cheers,
Graeme

I'd love to do something like this, but it's impractical and expensive to fly to Sydney or Melbourne or wherever for one evening a week for ten weeks. I could justify a solid week of classes easily enough, though.

The closest thing we have here is the Australian Wine Research Institute and their Advanced Wine Assessment Course, which I've been trying to do for the past two or three years but it's very popular. I once received an email saying applications were being accepted for the next course, then another email five minutes later saying that all available places had been taken.

Steve wrote:I'd love to do something like this, but it's impractical and expensive to fly to Sydney or Melbourne or wherever for one evening a week for ten weeks. I could justify a solid week of classes easily enough, though.

The closest thing we have here is the Australian Wine Research Institute and their Advanced Wine Assessment Course, which I've been trying to do for the past two or three years but it's very popular. I once received an email saying applications were being accepted for the next course, then another email five minutes later saying that all available places had been taken.

Steve,

If you haven't done it already, I would highly recommend doing the Advanced course before even tackling the Diploma. The Advanced itself is more comprehensive and challenging than other formal wine education courses I could mention. I believe there is someone in the Barossa who runs the Advanced; I'll see if I dig out his information for you.

Regards,

Nayan

Steve wrote:I'd love to do something like this, but it's impractical and expensive to fly to Sydney or Melbourne or wherever for one evening a week for ten weeks. I could justify a solid week of classes easily enough, though.

I think in the UK they offer something like that - a full-time intensive course (certainly they do for the Advanced - don't know about Diploma).
But Nayan's right - there's a LOT of things you're expected to know before the Diploma, and most of the other courses I've done - including for instance the NSW TAFE Wine Studies certificate - are very much less intense than even the Advanced certificate. Knowing the three grapes used in Cava, for instance. And what QbA stands for...
cheers,
Graeme

I would recommend doing the Intermediate before the Advanced. Many have been caught out by being over confident and jumping to the Advanced straight away. You get more out of the Advanced if you have done the Intermediate.

I don't believe you are allowed to do the Diploma without passing the Advanced first.

There is no other course offered in Oz that compares to the WSET. It is very thorough and gives a great international perspective.

The classes are great fun, mostly tasting. Usually a good mix of professional and interested wine people.




Billy B