Wine Exams: Cramming for Credibility

Cozying up with my CSW Study Guide

It's Monday night, I've already put a full day at the office, and I'm at home with a three-ring binder in my lap and a yellow highlighter in my hand. I'm tired from a weekend that could have used one more day, but I've got to study. Next month I'll be driving to Napa Valley to sit through a 60-minute exam in the hopes of becoming a Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW). And if you're asking yourself why I might be doing this, you can rule out a salary bump or a promotion. Just as accountants get CPAs and business people MBAs, those three little letters after your name give you added credibility in your field.

Whatever you've heard about us "wine people" is true. We're geeks. We're nerds. We say things like "lead pencil", "petrol" and "cat urine" when talking about liquids we drink. We study the effects of microclimates and soil composition on vines within a 2-square mile radius. We're the people who get handed the wine list by friends at a restaurant, or the ones who get Facebook messages for pairing recommendations. We do it because we love it and it simply tastes good. And if we weren't getting these nerdy, three letter acronyms behind our names, why would, or should, you trust us? Most of the time, we rely on our palates to do the talking, so why not get some solid credentials to prove the rest of our knowledge.

Few, if any, of us (outside of California) grow up saying, I want to be a sommelier or viticulturist when I grow up. No one walked into my high school "Career Day" and said, "I make wine for a living," or "My office is my car, and I spend 6 days a week in restaurants." So, it's somewhat of an anomaly that a girl from Pennsylvania would find herself studying wine in San Francisco. Some of you might be thinking, "What does a wine exam consist of?" Or that maybe "studying for a wine exam" in fact means kicking back with a few glasses each night in preparation. While some exams, typically the more advanced and prestigious ones, do include tastings (blind, might I add, which can be petrifying to even some of the most seasoned wine aficionados) the one I'll be taking in a month is comprised of 100 multiple choice questions on topics like olfactory epithelium and soil differentiation between the German regions Rheinhessen and Pfalz. It's not the road to a PhD but will get me three little letters I can place behind my name to give myself a slight edge against the rest of the pack, CSW.

 Gaining credentials gives us plausibility on a topic that can be so elusive and many times, downright subjective. There are many wine certifications to choose from, most notably, sommelier, and the highly coveted, Master of Wine.  From now until February 16, any spare time I have will be devoted to regions, varietals and viticulture and online sample tests. Once I pass, I'll be proud to call myself a certified wine geek--er, specialist. Wish me luck!