Posts by Chris

Last week was our last classroom session for the WSET Diploma. Alas, I missed it because of illness. But it seems a good time to reflect on my not-quite-finished two years of fieldwork among the WSET. (With apologies to Evans-Pritchard.)  Like most fieldwork, it seemed at times interminable, and at other times, to go by in a flash. There was culture shock and disorientation. Who are these people? Why do they do these things? There...

Last week we had two of the ‘small’ (as WSET calls them) exams. These were the sparkling wine and spirits units. It would be a miracle if I didn’t have to resit the sparkling wine one. Spirits? Who knows. What happened? Simple – I blanked. I think the sparkling tastings went ok. I was correct on 2 out of 3, but then again, that’s only 2 out of 25 points each. The rest is description and justification. As readers will know by now,...

Apologies for not getting a blog post out in almost two weeks. Besides the WSET exams yesterday (more on those soon), I’ve been spoilt for choice. Yes, indeed. The silence isn’t the lack of something to say, but rather I have three blog posts in various states of unreadiness. Some are even on the research topic of Anthroenology – wine and sustainability. Speaking of sustainability – in the next week or so, the...

Almost two weeks ago now, we had a reading week for WSET, so no trekking down to London for classes. This past week, I was sidelined with a stomach complaint, so also no trip to London. Both of these, however, left me time to sit back and reflect on larger issues. (Despite that, it took me ages to get this post to what I consider an acceptable condition – hence the silence on the blog. I’m still not as happy as I’d like to be with...

Poire Williams, a pear brandy, rather smells, as you might suspect, like pears. This is a problem. Pears smell like pears. There’s not a lot more to be said, as far as I can tell. One pear smells more or less like another. Why is this a problem? In the context of WSET, it’s a problem because the description of the nose contains five points for the description of aromas. Further, those points are awarded as one point per aroma. In...