The WSET is over

I survived the test. It was oddly okay once it started, even though I got a cold chill when they sat the wine for the blind tasting out on the table in four unmarked bottles. The blind tasting was first, and not difficult since the wine wasn't anything tricky like unoaked Chardonnay or a crazy blend, then the multiple choice, which was both easier and harder than I expected, since there were questions all over the board. Some were easy, some I had to consider, and one or two I had no idea and guessed (I hate when they ask questions that are not brought up as important points in the book, but are mentioned as sidenotes to sidenotes that you have to infer on top of that).

My MO on these things is to go through the questions, answer them, and circle the ones I am not totally sure about on the exam question paper. Then I go back over everything to check answers and focus on the ones on which I am uncertain. In one case I went back and changed a right answer to a wrong one, which is silly, but in at least two others I thought about the answers and changed them to the correct ones. I know from looking things up post the test I got three wrong, and figure I missed a couple of others besides those, so as far as that goes I am in the same boat as the last test.

The final section was the short-answer and I was actually terrified of this and remember putting my head down on the table before we opened the books. I was imagining all sorts of horrible scenarios, and now that I think about it, one of them was actually on the test, but it was okay. There were no questions that made me feel lost or desperate, and other than spacing on the fact that Sekt is tank-produced, I think I did fine. Unless I totally mis-read and misunderstood some questions on styles of sweet wines, which I started worrying about when I woke up at 4 AM this morning.

The only annoyance was that there was a very noisy sigher there, sitting one person away from me. He sighed with pain or frustration the entire test, and in between during breaks he was letting out the kinds of very loud attention-getting yawns people like him emit. He was either having a very difficult time with some of the questions, suffering from intestinal pain, or a drama queen.

Walking out of Copia post-test was fantastic. I had such a sense of relief, yet was frantically thumbing through my books and notes to check a few things. It was a goregous day up in Napa yesterday, though, and we went to Robert Sinskey (great), Bouchon for lunch (where it redeemed itself somewhat for what was one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had at the one in Las Vegas), the Napa Valley Olive Oil Manufactory since I needed some more olive oil and like theirs (and it is not all tourist trappy and expensive like some other olive oil places in Napa), and then Duckhorn, which was mostly unpleasant atmosphere-wise (and the wines were not very interesting, either) except for their cute cat that was trying to catch bees in the vineyards. I am going to write something in more detail about the tasting room visits later, since they were like night and day, but right now I am glad my life can go back to normal, at least until I decide I need to start the Diploma course.

(Of course, now I am thinking I completely blew the blind tasting and am being cocky and will pay for that, because I am thinking too much about it. I just wrote to find out what it was since I was done with the paper before the exam time was over, and we were told to email if we wanted to know.)

Comments

[Dulcie.]

Yay, and congrats, Kieca!

[Kieca]

Thanks, Alder. I guess I will find out in late August, or around then. Seems every season is the busy season at the WSET and it takes that long to grade. I mostly pity the person who has to decipher my, uh, creative handwriting, even though I tried to write as neatly as possible.

[Alder]

Congratulations on finishing the exam. That's a milestone in and of itself. And knowing you Kieca, you'll do fine. You don't give yourself nearly enough credit for your wine knowledge, which is extensive.

[Kieca]

Oh, I know, I exaggerate a bit, don't I? I know nobody got food poisoning or anything, so it wasn't HORRIBLE in that way, but I was mad because I was responsible for getting everyone involved! Bouchon in Yountville was a much better experience... service was a little off/slow, but we were in no rush and it was not a big deal. The waiter forgot to total our wine into the bill so I had to remind him, but it was all fine, and extra nice because we got to eat outside, something you don't get to do a lot in SF.

I just found out that I was right on the blind tasting and that I maybe got the pricing off by a few dollars (I have to go home and look at what the scales were, exactly... I remember what I picked but not the price range), but was close, so I am happy.

[Nick]

I'm sure the cocky-ness is not misplaced. Glad that Bouchon redeemed itself although I have to say I didn't consider it quite so bad a dining experience.