WSET Level 3 Study Tips or How to Wrangle the WSET Level 3 Beast First and foremost, Level 3 success depends on interactive studying.
Students often feel that if they read through the book once, or even twice, they have studied. To be successful on the WSET Level 3 exam, however, you must study interactively with the material in your study pack. What does this mean? It’s more than just highlighting key concepts (you’d pretty much be highlighting the entire book!)
We provide some examples of interactive studying here:
Winemaking Chapters in Study Book Don’t just read the sections, but create lists of winemaking steps for the different wine styles.
The WSET has spent quite a bit of ink on different types of wine production in Chapters 8 and 9. There is a section on Producing High-Volume, Inexpensive Wines and another section on Producing Premium Wines. There is a section on winemaking for Aromatic Grape Varieties and on Less Aromatic Grape Varieties. Given the WSET’s attention to these sections, it is a good idea to create a summary list of the major production steps and options of each.
Recommended Lists to Create:
Aromatic Grape White Winemaking Non-aromatic Grape White Winemaking High Production v Premium Production White Wine High Production v Premium Production Red Wine Sweet Winemaking options Sparkling wine production methods (Traditional, Transfer, Tank, Asti methods)
For example: Your list for Aromatic Grape White Winemaking should include things that winemakers do to retain and enhance primary fruit character and aromatics, such as frequently monitoring SO2 levels (to keep grapes and wine from oxidizing, which would reduce fresh fruit character) and cool fermentation temperatures (to retain the fresh, primary fruit aromas and flavors.)
Your summary list could look something like this:
Goal: Retain, enhance primary fruit character and aromatics/ Careful handling to retain fruit, floral aromas Options:
SO2 levels frequently monitored (to keep grapes and wine from oxidizing) Optional whole bunch pressing (less oxidation from broken skins for fruit purity) Clarification: avoids skin/particle flavors that could mask fruit in juice Inert vessels (i.e., Alsace and some German Rieslings may be in old oak) Cool ferment encourages primary fruit/slow steady MLF avoided – seeking high acidity, and want to avoid buttery flavors Bottled soon after harvest (some German, Alsatian Rieslings matured in old oak for up to one year) No new oak flavors Many rarely blended with other varieties (i.e., Riesling)
However, don't stop there! Keep creating summary lists for easy review over morning coffee or during a lunch break at work.
Production Methods
The WSET loves specialty wines such as Tokaji Aszu and Amarone. Know the winemaking steps for specialty wines that they discuss in the book. This includes the different production methods for Fortified wine styles as well as Sparkling wines. A past NVWA blog post provided key steps for Sparkling production methods, but try creating your own list before peeking.
Once you have your production method/winemaking lists, you can refer back to them frequently – and you will want to. Once you get to the regional chapters, you will see that these sections do not often include winemaking details. In the regional chapters, for example, you may read that a wine is made in a fresh, fruity style, without further explanation. You will need to infer and go back to the winemaking sections to understand the potential winemaking steps.
Make a note of Regional References in Winemaking Chapters.
When a particular region is noted in the winemaking chapters, add it to a separate sheet of paper, which will then become your summary sheet on that region (more on that later).
For example, on Page 50 of the study book, under Pre-bottling Maturation, you are told that premium Australian Rieslings rarely benefit from any contact with oak or oxygen and will be stored before ...