I’m currently undertaking the Wine & Spirits Education Trust Diploma which is a 2-3 year program composed of 5 written theory exams on wine production, business, and worldwide regions as well as several tasting exams and a thesis. I’ve read several memory books (Horsley, O’Brien, Cooke) and have started to structure study with memorization techniques as I’ve begun the meat of the program, reviewing in depth, every major wine region worldwide.
I figured I’d give you a little input about the exam and the structure I’ve laid out so far to organize the data. I welcome any suggestions, a lot of the information is repetitive and connected/interrelated, I’m open to more efficient ways to organize it. Regardless, thanks for having a look!
Exam
Timed written exam is weighted on 4 rather specific questions from within the mountain of text. Thus students must have a broad knowledge and mastery to rapidly compose an answer concerning a few specific niches within the material. (Ie. a question may ask about permitted harvest yields in Prosecco or the export business of Bordeaux)
A tasting exam is composed of sets of 3 wines, and the student must refer to a mental framework of winemaking/climate/style to identify quality, structure, etc. (Ie. Champagne is high acid, notes of toast, with a fine texture.)
Material
Region-Sub-region-appelation (ie. Champagne - Montagne de Reims - Verzy, Bouzy, Ambonnay Grand Cru Villages) - Loci Method, with a person identified with each region - (Ie. Côte de Sézanne is Suzanne Summers)
Variety (ie. Côte des Blancs grows principally Chardonnay) - Loci Method with regional association
Yields (Ie. Champagne may harvest 15,500 kg/HA or Prosecco 90 hl/HA) Pegging with regional association
Climate (Cold, cool, warm, hot & Mediterranean, Maritime, Continental - ie. Champagne is a cool, continental climate) - Would like to relate action/object to regional association (ie. Asolo Prosecco (Warm, mediterranean) = Han Solo in a light jacket (warm) eating seafood (mediterranean)
Soil (ie. Côte de Sézanne is mostly clay, silt, with pockets of chalk) Suzanne summers made from clay, coughing up silt, while pulling chalk from pockets
Disease/Pests (ie. Chardonnay in Champagne is prone to powdery mildew) - Not sure yet, perhaps pegging to code the disease with an object/action
Density/Temps/Sales numbers (ie. Sparkling wine is fermented around 10° C, Cava is planted to densities around 3,000 vines/HA, Saumur produces 10.2 million bottles of sparkling wine) Pegging with regional association
Most information centers around the region/sub-region then variety, climate, soil, business, etc. So I’ve tried my best to center the data around a regional peg (Person) to help locate the data which otherwise gets confusing (ie. lots of warm, maritime climates or regions with same allowed yields). So far these techniques have been really helpful, it’s just been organizing the data thoughtfully which has been confusing as there are so many connections and points of input!