The rage is relentless
We need a movement with a quickness
You are the witness of change
And to counteract
We gotta take the power back

Sometimes I wonder if the Internet should have a theme song.  I’d nominate Rage Against The Machine’s Take The Power Back, given the possibilities of democratization that the connected economy presents to us nearly every day.

That’s an overly-dramatic introduction to a couple of on-line surveys… but what the hell, why be afraid to revel in our time, right?

Anyway… frequent 1WineDude readers will know my good buddy (and uber wine-geek) Jason Whiteside, who is currently finishing up the challenging WSET Diploma program (the stepping-stone into Master of Wine qualification).  Jason is taking on a bit of wine consumer research as part of his WSET work, and he needs your help!

Below you will find links to two (very, very quick) surveys that Jason is running to collect consumer’s views on two hot topics in the wine world.  The first, rising alcohol levels, is a topic that generates just about as much passion as any other being discussed around wine today. The second is a more specific exploration into what wine consumers think about Sauvignon Blanc (which surprisingly also brings out strong opinions among true wine geeks).

I’ll defer to Jason to introduce the surveys:

“These surveys represent a small amount of consumer research, which is being done for the WSET Diploma (the Diploma is divided into six learning Units, and one of them is on “The Business of Wine”). Both surveys are about ten questions each, and should take less than three minutes to complete. Consumer preference doesn’t garner the attention that Wine Critic preference does, but surveys like this can help swing the power back to the people. Thank you very much for your time in filling out the surveys. Your answers will remain confidential; even I will not be able to see who answered what.”

The results will be published in a future 1WineDude article, so do us a favor and take 5 minutes to tell us your thoughts!

Have your say about Alcohol Levels and Wine:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=phsAHStgKrfzRRTWFmGFoQ_3d_3d

Tell us what you think about White Wine and Sauvignon Blanc:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=95Sodl9Wgd0d2i9iTu2gXw_3d_3d

Cheers!

Joe talks to Wine Educator and WSET insider Jason Whiteside, who tells us about the most valuable tracks of wine education for the budding wine geek and the wine professional – such as the CSW, the WSET/Masters of Wine, the Court of Master Sommeliers, and the Masters of… the Universe!

By the Power of Grayskull!!!

Cheers!

This will probably show just how large of a rock I’ve been living under, since I’m just coming onto this now and their domain has been registered since October of last year…

Anyway, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) has (relatively) recently teamed up with Jancis Robinson, as well as a few regional promotional groups such as the German Wine Institute, to release a series of three-minute educational videos on wine.  Each of the vids focuses on a particular winegrowing area or country within a region (e.g., Europe, the Americas, South Africa, ANZ…).

I’m a fan of the WSET (I hold their Intermediate and Advanced certifications), and while I feel that their fees are relatively expensive, I can personally attest to the high quality of their courses and the relevant wine experience that they provide.  Those of you in the Philly area that are interested in WSET classes should check out PhillyWine.com – I personally know a few of their instructors (Mark Cochard, Charles Austermuhl, and Neal Ewing) and they’re nice and very knowledgeable guys.

Anyway, the WSET vids are aimed at beginners, so I’m not sure how much 1WinDude.com readers will get out of these, but they’re well done and at least worth giving a quick look:

http://www.wsetglobal.tv/

Cheers!

(images: wsetglobal.tv)

The Main Domaine
For some time now, I’ve been digging the blog stylings of 1WineDude.com friend Jill over at domaine547.com. The domain457 on-line wine store has recently gone green, which is a move always viewed favorably by the Dude. Not that my opinion on green livin’ matters in the grand scheme of things. But it’s worth some props!

One of the especially cool things about an on-line wine retailer that also participates actively in wine blogging, is that they can leverage the knowledge of the “wine blogosphere collective hive mind” to construct a killer wine selection. Not sure if anyone is also considering leveraging the knowledge of the “wine blogosphere collective hive mind” to attempt an evil plan at world domination, but if I hear about that, I will definitely blog it (but it will probably still only get, like, at most 3 diggs…).

Anyway, constructing a killer wine selection is exactly what domaine547 has done. Case in point: they’ve got a special category in their product line up called Wine Blogger Sampler Packs. These packs are made up of wines recommended by the wine blogging community, including selections from the likes of BrooklynGuy Loves Wine. Some very intriguing stuff is in them there packs; wish I could order some and have them delivered to PA… but… alas…

domaine547 is kindly offering a 5% discount to 1WineDude.com readers – so check out their store and take advantage of the savings! (Use coupon code “dude” during checkout).

Wine 2.0 in Yo Face
Oh, got another tidbit for ya: this week has seen the launch of a wine-peeps facebook-style online community called the OpenWine Consortium. I signed up as user #20-something. Their now up to 200+ members in only a few days – explosive growth.

It’s a great mish-mash of wine consultants, wine industry folks, wineries, wine bloggers, and wine lovers. New groups / discussions are popping up like mad, such as this one for WSET students (wish I’d had access to that kind of brain power when I took my WSET exams!). Check it out – join up and get yerself a little bit of Wine 2.0!

Cheers!

I’ve posted previously about my take on the “main” (aka internationally-recognized) streams of wine certification. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to take one of the certification exams, you should check out the World Wine Challenge game that I stumbled upon recently.

How did I do? Not as well as I should have considering how recently I passed the WSET Advanced and CSW exams. So… I said screw it and decided to drink some wine instead (back to the old-fashioned wine study method!).

For those times that you say “Screw it! Let’s have a drink…” this holiday season, I advise you not to forget the Bubbly (aka sparkling wine). Here in the Northeast, when the weather gets cooler we start to gravitate towards the heavy, alcoholic, and very red wine styles to give our insides that warm-and-fuzzy feeling. So we tend to forget how awesome it is having a bottle of bubbly around for the holidays.

My buddy Jason has recently penned a list of his holiday fizz favorites for Main Line magazine. A snippet from his picks are below (click to enlarge). If you’re in the mood to splurge, I highly suggest “La Grande Dame” (if you’re also in the Philly area, I also highly suggest that you e-mail me when you open it!).

Cheers!

Whenever someone asks me what I’ve been up to in my “wine life,” and I tell them that I’ve recently sat an exam of some sort, I invariably get asked the same question:

“So… uhm.. what does that do for you exactly? Are you, like, a sommelier now?”

Now, it wasn’t all that long ago that I knew nothing about wine, or the various credential-chasing that would effectively allow me to take something I would come to love (drinking and sharing wine) and piss all over it by making it difficult and shoring up my free time with studying weighty tomes of wine knowledge. So I understand why people ask me that. The answer is even more complicated and usually boils down to this:

“Well… sort of…”

So, I thought that I’d try to take a few minutes to explain the wacky world of wine education in layman’s terms – a quick reference that I’d wished that I’d had when I was starting to “take this wine thing more seriously.”

Fortunately for me, the fabulous folks at i-WineReview.com have already done this for me, and they have a great page on their site that lays it all out in some detail. So, can you go to this page and have it all figured out?

Well… sort of…

In the world of wine, there are (more-or-less) 3 main educational/certification paths that you can take which are internationally recognized:

1. Masters of Wine – This is the granddaddy qualification for wine peeps, and exists to recognize the best of the best in the art, science, and business of wine. Which means that theoretically anyone can achieve it, but in reality it’s insanely tough and there are fewer than 25 members from the U.S. Achieving the MW credential is a bit like a PhD on steriods.

   The MW recommends, as a prerequisite for entry, the Level 4 Diploma in Wine & Spirits from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET). This is a bit like the Masters degree of the wine world, with 4 levels of certification covering a one-day foundation certification in wine / spirits concepts, all the way through a multi-year Diploma program. Each step gets significantly more difficult in the academic portion (multiple-guess and essay exams) and adds more difficult wine identification tastings. This is where I started (I’ve got Level 2 and Level 3 certifications, Level 3 being the first one to test you on tasting identification). WSET classes and exams can only be offered by affiliated organizations (e.g., PhillyWine.com in Philadelphia).

   This path (WSET through MW) focuses on the entire world of wine & spirits, how they are made, with emphasis on tasting profiles typical for these beverages in the regions where they are made.

2. The Court of Master Sommeliers – This is the granddaddy qualification of wine service. It focuses on the best-of-the-best in wine service and industry matters, and those that sit the final diploma exam also must pass a brutal (and fairly rapid) tasting. I know someone who is sitting this tasting by invitation, and she has been studying her a__ off for a month, mostly through ‘blind’ tastings (you identify the wine – type, age, and region – by tasting, without knowing anything about it until it’s poured into your glass).
3. Society of Wine Educators – This group exists to promote standards of qualification in the education of wine. Their focus is on deep understanding of wine taste, identifying wine faults, and having detailed knowledge of the geography, science, and history of wine. Members (of which I am one) and non-members can sit two levels of exams to achieve qualifications that are meant to prove that you know what you’re talking about when you speak or teach on the subject of wine:

   Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) – This exam is a bit like the Boards of wine: 100 questions (a bit more difficult than those of the WSET Advanced exam), 1 hour, 75% needed to pass.

   Certified Wine Educator (CWE) – More difficult exam, plus two tastings to identify similar wines from different world regions and wine faults, respectively. I have met people that have failed these tastings multiple times – it’s brutal.

After that, come various certification and education programs around the globe that are local, and are NOT internationally recognized. These can be fun, local, and usually require no wine knowledge to get started. They’re a great way to learn more about wine. There are probably about a billion of these such programs, give or take several million. As an example, I’ve heard good things about the Wine Spectator School, which offers classes on-line. A quick search on the Internet will turn up all kinds of these, or varying difficulty and interest. Are these local things any good?

Well… sort of…

If you want to learn a bit more about wine, by all means seek out a local program near you and have fun. If that program asks for lots of your hard-earned dollars (I’m talking $1000s here) to give you what they tell you is a “professional” certification that rivals the three I have outlined above, then ***walk away as fast as you can***. And keep your hand firmly on your wallet and/or purse while you exit.

Cheers!

Toast This!