What is WSET Diploma?
WSET President Michelle Brampton and Honorary President Dr. Laura Catena at the 2024 graduation ceremony
If you’ve spent much time with me (IRL or online), you probably know that I pretty nerdy when it comes to wine. In fact, a few years ago, you could say I achieved “official wine nerd” status: I completed my WSET Diploma. Officially called “the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines,” it is an award given out by the Wine & Spirits Education Trust (that’s where “WSET” comes from). According to them, Diploma “is an expert-level qualification covering all aspects of wine.”
That’s pretty broad, so let’s break it down a bit.
Most of the time when I said I was studying for the WSET Diploma, people would think I was talking about a single, very intense exam à la the Master Sommelier exam they learned about in Somm (that is an award from the Court of Master Sommeliers, or CMS, not WSET). However, it’s actually 5 exams — and a research paper. Those exams cover not only still wine (that’s most of the wine in the world), but also sparkling wine, fortified wine, wine production, and the wine business. It requires a minimum of 500 hours study time (the equivalent of 62.5 8-hour workdays) and typically takes between 18 months and 3 years to complete.
Here’s how the units break down.
D1: Wine Production
This covers how wine gets made — everything from soil types and vineyard decisions to winemaking options. It’s a very key foundational course since it covers all the things that really make a wine what it is. If you struggle in this one, it’ll probably only get more challenging from here (the content in this unit comes back up repeatedly in others, just in different ways). It accounts for 20% of your overall Diploma score and finishes up with a 1.5-hour essay exam. You have to take this unit before you can advance to the tasting units.
D2: Wine Business
This unit is focused on all of the factors that go into the price of a wine, as well as how wine is sold and marketed (and accounts for 10% of your overall Diploma score). It ends with a 1-hour essay exam. You have to take this unit before you can advance to the tasting units.
D3: Wines of the World
This is the biggie. If someone is talking to you about their big Diploma exam, they’re probably talking about D3. There’s a good reason for that, too — this unit accounts for 50% of your overall Diploma score — and it covers a lot of material. This unit goes over all of the notable still wine regions of the world. We’re not just talking names, grapes, and tasting notes, either — the textbook is over 600 pages long and includes information like climate factors, average yields, common pests, and marketing challenges broken out for each area.
To assess your knowledge on that absolutely huge amount of information, you get a two-part exam: a theory exam and a tasting exam. Like the previous units, the theory exam consists of essay questions; however, it’s now 5 essays in 3 hours and 20 minutes. You also have a blind wine tasting consisting of 4 flights of 3 wines each (1 of the same grape, 1 of the same region, 1 of the same country, 1 random grab bag). These happen over the course of two days (it’s a long two days).
D4 and D5: Sparkling Wine and Fortified Wine
I’m combining these two since their formats are the same. D4 was my personal favorite unit, covering the delight that is sparkling wine (Champagne, Cava, Prosecco, Lambrusco, etc.), while D5 covers fortified wine (Port, Sherry, Banyuls, etc.). The concept of these units are similar to D3 just focused on a smaller subset of wines with related production methods. These units end with a combined tasting/theory exam — you have 1.5 hours to answer essay questions and blind taste 3 wines total. Each unit is 5% of your total Diploma score.
D6: Research Paper
And finally, the research paper. This is a 3,000-word academic paper on a topic set by WSET (they update the theme every 6 months; if you don’t love the theme, you can wait another 6 months for the next topic). We’re not talking high school academic paper here, either — this is a fully researched document with extensive citations, time spent in academic journals, etc. For mine on corks and alternative closures, I interviewed winemakers, read chemistry journals, and got deep into technical specs from different cork companies. Overall, it accounts for 10% of your Diploma score.
Getting the actual award
You’ve taken all these exams…how do you actually get the award? First, you need to pass the exams; a 55% score is considered passing. If you’re an overachiever, you can earn merit at 65% or distinction at 75%. You get separate tasting and theory scores, and it’s possible to pass one but not the other. If you fail a unit, you are generally able to retake them (and for D3, if you only pass theory but fail tasting or vice versa, you only have to retake the half you failed). It can take up to 12 weeks for WSET to send you results after each exam.
Once you’ve received word that you passed all your units — congratulations! You’ve done it!
Graduation
WSET holds a graduation ceremony for all Diploma graduates worldwide in London each year. When you pass your Diploma, you will eventually get an invitation to attend (usually about a year later). If you can make it work, it’s a fun way to celebrate your accomplishment! I also recommend popping by English sparkling wine country while you’re there (but that’s a story for another post).
One more thing…
Before we go, I do feel the need to address probably the most common question I get when I talk about WSET Diploma.
“So, are you like a sommelier?”
Well, that’s kind of a tricky one to answer because it depends on the definition. Most places define a sommelier as a wine steward, or someone in a restaurant who serves wine (Merriam-Webster, among others). And although I have served wine in a restaurant (long before I started in wine education), I didn’t ever call myself a sommelier. However, since Somm, people have tended to associate it more with people who have achieved a certain level of academic achievement in wine, and they’re generally more familiar with the CMS awards (Certified Sommelier, Advanced Sommelier, Master Sommelier). There isn’t a direct parallel between WSET and CMS awards, but I usually say Diploma is similar to Advanced Sommelier.
Technically, though, you are awarded the honorary “DipWSET” as a Diploma graduate, not “Sommelier.” Still, it’s wine, and it’s supposed to be fun. And I’m guessing you’ve poured a bottle of wine at some point and can call yourself a “wine steward.”
So I say…if you got your Diploma and want to call yourself a sommelier…go for it.