Dominik Mueller

Yesterday, I received mail with the results of the WSET Level 2 exam that I took in November. I'm proud to say I passed with distinction. As the course was organised by the IHK and GBZ (Gastronomisches Bildungszentrum) in Koblenz, Germany and it was a combination of the WSET Level 2 Award in Wines and the Assistant Sommelier (IHK) qualification, I can call myself an assistant sommelier now, too. :)

The week-long course was a great experience during which I learned a lot and got to know fellow wine enthusiasts from other parts of Germany. While I do acknowledge the limitations of the WSET approach with respect to the "typicity" of grape varieties, given the many individual wine styles out there, the course content is still first-class, in my opinion. In my level 2 studies I got to dive deeper into wine regions that I hadn't been that familiar with before. Also, I believe it all comes down to what you make of the things you learn. Would I go out and proclaim I can recognize any variety in a blind tasting simply based on the content from the WSET book? Of course not. I rather think of typicity and the WSET's Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT) as very helpful guidelines in assessing a wine's character and quality. I hope my family and work commitments will allow me to continue my journey with WSET by pursuing the WSET Level 3 Award in Wines next year.