Wine from Thailand

With some friends we visited Dineasia in the middle of the Ashdown Forest in Sussex on a cold and frosty night. It's an unusual place with two separate menus, one Indian and the other Thai. If you want to mix and match and have poppadums followed by chicken satay as an appetiser and then as the entree lamb tikka jalfrezi you can.

What caught my eye on the wine list was wine from Thailand. I would have thought the climate too hot and humid to grow vitis vinifera but according to the OCW bible there are several areas where grapes are grown and have been since the 1960's. The biggest producer is Siam Winery who produce more than half a million cases per year.


We tried their Monsoon Valley 2007 a blend of malaga blanc and colombard. I couldn't even find malaga blanc in Grapes and Wines so I guess it's very local. I'd describe the wine as pleasant and food friendly. Slightly perfumed and lacking in acidity (not surprising given the tropical climate) it was certainly pleasing enough for a second bottle.

It's always good to try something different.

WSET Diploma distance learning

With only one essay submission left before my Diploma is finished, I've been considering whether choosing the distance learning option was the right one.

The advantages for me have been;

• it's cheaper, about half the cost comparing it to attending classes
• it's been more flexible. I've not had to commit to classes which was important to me when I started as I was working in Baltimore when I started the program and the classes were either in London or at Plumpton!

But I recognise there are disadvantages;

• there is no-one to talk to or share your questions and ideas with
• you are not exposed to the lecturers who are working in the industry and thus have current knowledge and enthusiasm for their subjects
• you don't get the chance to taste so many wines

However I joined a tasting group in the last 3 months before Unit 3 and that made all the difference. I think that made up for the disadvantage of not being exposed to wines in the classroom. I also attended lots of trade tastings to train my palate.

On balance however if I was to start all over again I'd think I'd choose the distance learning route again. I'd certainly say the keys to success doing the Diploma as a distance learner (he says confidently not knowing if he has passed yet) are;

• plan and review how you are doing against the plan and keep revising your plan
• join a tasting group. If you can't form one yourself. Wherever you are it doesn't take many like minded people to form a useful core for tasting
• use the internet as a research tool

The last point I'd make is that I didn't realise when I started working part time for Oddbins how useful it would be. Sub-consciously being exposed to all that wine and consumer questions you build up a bigger store of wine knowledge than you think. So I suppose my final recommendation would be to try and work in the industry occasionally even whether it's wine shop, at an event or picking grapes during a harvest.

Oh, why the picture of the Berlucci Cellarius brut 2004? It was what I drank (not tasted) when I got home after my exam. I don't know where I got it from but it was in my rack. I was a little disappointed as, made by the champagne method and with a little age to it, I would have expected more autolytic characters. And the cat's name is Smudge.

It's over

So that's it - I've finally sat my Unit 3 exam and survived all the hours and days and weeks and months of studying.

I don't want to sound over confident but I found the exam to my liking. The theory questions covered topics I knew about although I wouldn't have done well if I had to answer the question about vinification in Burgundy. I know I didn't get some of the grapes right in the tasting but am re-assured that some of my colleagues didn't get them correct either. And anyway, it's the observations and assessments that carry more marks and I feel I wrote enough. I now simply have to wait 12 weeks to see if I wrote enough facts to pass.........

So I've had my feet up since the exam last Wednesday. No wine books, study guides or surfing the web looking at wine related sites. Next and last item on the Diploma agenda is my final essay which is due in by mid April.

That sounds easy by comparison to the Unit 3 studying.

It's now only 48 hours to go

It's hard to believe I opened my first book to start my Diploma Unit 3 studying on the 24th June 2007 and here I now am only 48 hours away from the exam.

In between I've done around 300 hours of studying and tasted countless wines, certainly more than 400 and many more if I was to add in the wines tasted at trade events. I'd say the WSET guidance of a minimum of 300 hours studying is right but conservative for those of us not involved in the trade on a day to day basis. When I was working at Oddbins on a casual basis early on in my Diploma studies. I was absorbing more than I realised. It helped cement producer names and what grapes you could generally find growing in which region. It also has been a benefit in tasting practice as I have more of a feel for price so have felt reasonably confident in giving a price range when assessing a wine's quality.

But what would I do differently if I was to start my studies all over again?

I'd certainly have done more more hours involved with the trade, say by working at Oddbins or at trade events. I'd have stumped up the £140 or so for a Harpers subscription as I think it's a good way to keep on top of the commercial world. I'd also have tasted more but I suppose you can never get enough tasting experience no matter how much you do. Joining the tasting group was invaluable to me. I'd also have done nearer 400 hours of study although I accept that it has been tough enough to fit in the 300 or so hours I have done in the time.

I'm not nervous about Wednesday, just apprehensive about being able to recall all the facts sufficient to get enough marks to pass. If each question is marked out of 100 then I need to get, simply put, 55 facts down to get 55 marks for a pass. Recall of facts is one of the hardest things I've found during my studying but doing the Diploma has certainly helped exercise my brain.

It's back to the books.