How to Study for Wine Certification Courses

 Congratulations! You’ve signed up for a wine certification course, received the textbook, and marked the exam date in red on your calendar. Now what?!?

 Here are Three Top Tips for students to help you get started with your wine studies:

Tip #1: Create a Study Plan.

 A carefully crafted study plan tells you WHAT you’re going study, WHEN you’re going to study it and for HOW LONG. A study schedule helps you avoid wasting valuable time deciding “what am I going to study today?” Because let’s be honest: without a plan in place, we students will default to the topics that we find most interesting - which are usually those that we’re most confident about! Unfortunately, wine exams include questions about subjects we’re not always strong in (German wine law anyone?!) To be successful on exams, we need to dedicate sufficient study time to our weaker areas.

When putting together your study plan – consider the following:

·      What areas am I strong in, and where are my weak areas? Block out more time on your study plan for the latter.

·      Balance the topics you enjoy with ones you don’t. This makes wine study more palatable (pun intended!) Love to learn about wines from the beautiful Pacific Northwest, but Bordeaux classifications make your head spin? Pair these subjects together and tackle them in the same week.

·      Be realistic! Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither was learning all the DOCGs of Italy. Also - make sure to block out time off and pre-exam review on your study plan.

Remember: this is a study PLAN. It is not set in stone. You can, and likely will, change it up - because life will happen.

Tip #2: Emphasize Quality over Quantity.

 High quality wine is often made from lower yields, careful grape sorting and focused attention in the winery.  Similarly, high quality studying often results from less hours spent – but ensuring that during those hours we carefully sort out the stuff we don’t need to know for an exam and give wine studies our undivided attention.

An hour or two of focused study time is more effective than several hours if we’re interrupted, distracted, or attempting to multitask. Sustained and undistracted attention on a topic will move this information to our memory bank because we’re telling our brains “Hey! We’re focusing on important stuff here!” This will make it easier to recall information on exams – and give us a greater chance of success.

So, protect your study time! Give yourself an hour to get into a study flow: leave your phone in another room, put a “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, turn off email notifications and close your non-wine study browser tabs (yes, Instagram is one of these!).

Tip #3: Explore Study Aids Beyond Flashcards.

Almost all wine students have used flashcards at some point in their studies. However, the further you advance in your wine studies, the more limiting flashcards are as a study tool. While they certainly help us learn the WHAT, they don’t always assist with learning the WHY or HOW.

There are so many study tool options outside of trusty flashcards! For more creative thinkers – mind maps might work well. Or, for those of us who prefer a more structured approach, tools like flowcharts or outlines (my personal favorite!) are good options. 

But before you toss out or delete perfectly good flashcards, think about how you might be able to repurpose them. For example, let’s say you have a flashcard with “Northern Rhône AOC requiring 100% Syrah?” and the answer on the back (extra points for anyone who can name this AOC!) When using this flashcard, go beyond naming the AOC and, depending on your study level, ask yourself:

·      WHAT other AOCs in the Northern Rhône do I know?

·      HOW are these other AOCs different?

·      WHY do these AOCs result in different styles of Syrah?

Flashcards give you facts (the WHAT). And by following up with another question about the WHY or the HOW, we’ll gain a fuller understanding of the topic – and a better chance of exam success!

And a bonus Fourth tip: Enjoy Your Studies. Most of us get into wine classes and certification programs because we love learning about wine! Unfortunately, nitty gritty details and the stress of exams can take away some of that joy.

At Elevage Wine Coaching, our goal is to help wine students succeed AND sustain the enjoyment of wine throughout their studies. If you have any questions about how to put together a study plan, study methods outside of flashcards, or anything else wine study related: please reach out to us at info@elevagewinecoaching.com.

Noelle is the co-founder of Elevage Wine Coaching – created to provide study guidance and support to wine students. She is currently a Stage 2 Master of Wine student, and an alumni of The Wine & Spirit Archive.