WSET Diploma: Slay

The WSET D3 “Wines of the World” theory exam is not hard because the material is difficult to comprehend, it’s hard because there’s a lot of material that’s covered - over 600 pages, in fact!

As the exam date starts creeping up, at some point, candidates have to start reviewing and synthesizing the material they learned in a way that’s organized and insightful. At the Diploma level, it’s not only about memorization but also about connecting the facts together and finding patterns, as well as exceptions to rules, to demonstrate that you have a nuanced view of the world of wine that goes beyond generalizations.

So where do you start?

Let’s get the quick study tips out of the way:

1. Read the Examiner’s Reports early in the process. Because WSET does not publish model answers anymore, these reports are often the only insight into what the examiners are looking for when they grade the papers.

2. Read the exam questions carefully. You do not get extra points for irrelevant responses.

3. Be prepared to use real-life examples to show off your mastery of the topics. See my longer post on this here.

4. Know that every region is fair game on the exam. When we first opened our exams on the day of our theory exam, you could hear sharp audible gasps from the candidates sitting in the classroom. When I saw the word “China” on the page, I knew what the gasps were about. I don’t even remember what the question was about, because I did not review anything about China while preparing for the D3 exam and as soon as I saw the word “China”, I moved on to the next question. Luckily for me, I prepared all of the other regions much more thoroughly, so not knowing anything about one topic did not derail me on the entire exam.

How do you synthesize 600+ pages of reading material?

Diploma students quickly realize that what worked for the Level 3 exam does not necessarily work for the D3 exam. For L3, I wrote out stacks of flash cards and relied heavily on mnemonic devices, and while these methods were great for memorizing names and facts, these methods were not particularly useful for me to see the nuances of the various wine regions and wine styles to be able to answer “strengths and weaknesses” questions or “compare and contrast” questions.

I needed to see the information side-by-side, and for the D3 exam, I relied heavily on making charts. To illustrate this method, let’s look at some of the kinds of questions that WSET likes to ask about on the D3 exams.

WSET loves to ask questions about:

• Sweet wines

• Comparing sub-regions within the same region

• Grape variety characteristics and the styles they produce

Sweet Wines:

References to sweet wine styles are scattered throughout the D3 book, and I didn’t feel like I had a good grasp on sweet wine production methods until I put together a sweet wine chart to see where the wines were similar and where they were different in production and style. I went through the eBook doing a CTRL+F search for the word “sweet”, and every time I found a sweet style of wine, I put it in the left-hand corner, together with the method through which sweetness is obtained (e.g., botrytis, appassimento, freezing grapes on the vine), and then put the following relevant factors for this particular wine in the right-hand corner:

• Climate/vineyard factors

• Method of production in the winery

• Grape varieties used and why those varieties

• Classification systems

• Legal requirements under PDO systems

After I completed the chart, I went through the chart again to look for the key factors for each type of wine region or style and put them in red in the left-hand column so that they were clearly visible.

After going through this process, I was able to see in a concise, condensed chart how Sauternes and Tokaj diverged in production methods, even though they both rely on botrytis, how Canadian Icewine diverged from German Eiswein and how Italy loves air-drying their grapes. By systematically summarizing the grape varieties used, I was able to see their value in the process of sweet winemaking (e.g., Assyrtiko in Santorini and Chenin Blanc in the Loire Valley for their retention of high acidity, a key factor in the production of high quality sweet wines, or Welschriesling in Austria and Furmint in Tokaj for their susceptibility to noble rot).

Below are excerpts from my sweet wine chart (extracted from the larger sweet wine chart for the sake of brevity for this article):

Comparing sub-regions within the same region

Yes, you need to study all of the regions, but I don’t think you have to necessarily know everything about every region or sub-region - just the defining factors. For instance, I did not write down every time some New World region had plantings of Chardonnay because…let’s be honest, a lot of regions make Chardonnay. As a result, I only noted it in my studies when Chardonnay was a notable grape in a particular region.

However, I did try to go through the text for each region and figure out what is important for that region - Is it altitude? Is it proximity to the ocean? The grape variety? Historical significance? Is it an up-and-coming region that is becoming an alternative option for growers due to climate change?

It’s difficult when there are so many little sub-regions to remember and sometimes they sound very similar in the D3 textbook, but my approach to learning these little sub-regions was to keep in mind that there is some reason why WSET decided to mention that particular region in the textbook, since the book doesn’t describe all of the wine regions of the world, and to try to figure out what that reason is.

Again, I used the same chart format that I used with my sweet wine chart above, and I put a more comprehensive summary of the region on the right-hand column in black text and then went back through the chart to identify the key factors in red text on the left-hand column.

While I did not do this for most of the Old World regions, I made some variation of these charts for all of the New World regions, which was initially my weak spot in my studies.

Below are excerpts from my Australian wine chart (skipping pages in between for the sake of brevity for this blog post):

Grape variety characteristics and the styles they produce

I have trouble memorizing facts scattered throughout a book unless I see them grouped together and can try to identify patterns, so I put together the following “grape hazard” chart:

As with the sweet wine chart above, I did a few passes through the eBooks searching for the words “coulure,” “trunk” and “early”. Remember to keep in mind how these issues could show up on an exam. It’s important to know not only that Grenache is prone to coulure but that coulure reduces yields and therefore has the potential reduce production and profit in years with bad weather during flowering.

Seeing these grapes grouped together, I was able to come up with some loose rules for myself, such as, “A lot of the major French grapes, other than Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, and most of the delicious Italian red grapes are early budding and therefore at risk for spring frost,” or “It seems that most of the coulure grapes are black grapes, and the white grapes that are prone to coulure are Gewurtzraminer, Roussane and Viognier.”

You still have to put the work into memorization, but for me, it was much easier to see these grapes grouped together than to try to memorize them individually, and many of these lists are not horrifically long.

Furthermore, you can do this for any other topic. Do you have trouble remembering which California regions are above the fog line? Do a CTRL+F search for “fog” and create a list. Do you have trouble remembering which regions have issues with hail? Do a CTRL+F search for “hail” and create a list.

Create your own lists and tape them around your home so you can look at them while you are brushing your teeth or getting ready for work.

Some parting thoughts:

Everyone studies differently, and what worked for me may not work for you. You may really like sketching out maps or using flashcards, and often, people have to use a mix of different study methods, as I did as well.

The key is to figure out a system early in the process that helps you digest the material and see it from both a macro birds-eye view and also from a nuanced detailed view.

DISCLAIMER: Even though I provided excerpts of my D3 charts and study guides above, these are meant to be purely illustrative of the points I make in this article and are not meant to be relied upon as a substitute for creating your own study guides or as an informative resource. I did not go back to my study guides or charts while writing this article to confirm that the notes in the charts above are indeed correct, and I make no claims about the accuracy or reliability of the content in these charts. (You can see where the lawyer in me is kicking back in. 😊)

Now go forth and slay the Beast! You’ve got this!

Any questions? Any other study tips for D3 students that you would like to share? Comment below or reach out to me on my Instagram!