DAPS: Diploma Assessment Preparation Scheme

Today I took my first DAPS test. It was for my Unit 6 - Fortified Wines Course. Here's how it works.

The Diploma Assessment Preparation Scheme (DAPS) allows the student to take a sample test that is reviewed by one of WSET's examiners. This gives the student an idea of how the test is conducted, how to manage their time and an idea of how it will be graded. My Program Provider believes in them and I have to agree that they are helpful and in the long run probably worth the $50 that each one costs.

The Unit 6 test that I took today consisted of tasting and writing reports on 3 fortified wines and then writing paragraphs on 3 randomly selected topics from the Unit 6 syllabus. Each section is allowed 30 minutes, so the total test takes 1 hour.

For the tasting section WSET supplies a list of the 3 wines to be tasted, and recommends that you have a friend down load the list, make the purchase and pour out the wines for you. In my case the list recommended a Port, A Sherry, and one other wine from the syllabus. My wife picked out a LBV Port, an Amontillado, and a Madeira 5 year old Verdelho. I had to blind taste them, describe them, comment on the quality and state which country I thought they were from. I didn't have to guess the type of wine - which by the way if you have never tried it, is not that easy. I confused the Amontillado with a Oloroso Sherry - which when I re-tasted them side by side, I realized was a rookie mistake because the Amontillado is drier, though both have some caramel flavors, and in truth, many of the less expensive commercial Amontillados are probably a blend of styles anyway.

What was more important however, is that I learned that I take too long in pondering and judging these wines. I had only 10 minutes per wine, and while that sounds like a lot of time, when you have about 20 items that you have to judge the wine on as well as write a coherent tasting note for each of them, you realize that you have to evaluate, and write your answer and not spend a lot of time looking or sniffing and thinking. When I took my Advanced tasting test, we only had 2 wines, I was prepared and it still took me 15 minutes for each wine and I had only just put my pencil down when time ran out.

Today the time ran out while I was still working on my 3rd wine. I left at least 15 points on the table and with probably errors on the first two wines, that would probably guarantee a fail or only a near pass. One of the tricky thngs to this test, is that you have to memorize all of the tasting items that you need to judge against. Four to five years ago, all of the items were listed and the range of descriptors were printed and one only needed to circle your choices. Now you need to memorize the items and the descriptors. When you are rushed and panicky it is easy to lose a point simply because you forgot to include an item. But for me, it is a matter of running out of time because I needed to think about what a particular flavor is.

The best technique, I think, is to learn the common descriptors for the wines you will be tasting. For fortified wines, I know that Sherries will have some yeast, bread dough, perhaps nuttiness, e.g. almonds or hazel-nuts. They may have some caramel if it is an oxidized Sherry. A Madeira will show more baked sugar / toffee flavors. Ports will generally show black fruit if a Ruby, LBV, or Vintage or various caramel flavors if a Tawny or Colheita. Having some of the basic, usual terms at the tip-of-your-tongue, so to speak, can save you some time in thinking about what are the flavors / aromas you are tasting.

So anyhow. My test is 1 month away and I still need work in this area.

The 2nd half of my test was to write a paragraph on each of 3 different topics. 30 minutes were allocated for this giving about 10 minutes per topic. I still have a lot of studying to do, but I felt pretty good about this part of the test. The random topics were: "Gonzalez Byass" ( a Sherry Shipper ), Grenache Noir ( used in Vin Doux Naturals in France ) and "Late Bottled Vintage Ports" ( and how they aid the consumer ).

We know in advance the list of possible topics for the test. there are maybe 140 of them, and we know the reference for each of these topics, because all the test questions will be based on information in Jancis Robinson's "Oxford Companion to Wine". The problem is some topics in O.C.W are several pages long of very small print !

On Gonzalez Byass, I knew the basic story but screwed up several dates of events that journaled the company's growth. I also forgot to mention that they sold not just Sherry but also a Cava and I think either a red wine or Port from the Douro.

On the late bottled Vintage question, while I did a great job explaining LBV Ports and how they were made and that they did not age after bottling nor last long after opening I forgot to mention that they actually helped the consumer because like vintage ports which MUST be aged by the consumer, an LBV is ready to drink when released. Since that was the basis for the question, it might have been fatal to not actually mention it, though I did in a round-about way.

For the last 6 weeks or so, I have been extracting and copying notes out of Robinson's 800 page book so that I could focus on just those topics that were on the syllabus. I have 27 pages of notes and I am not done yet. I need to finish them and then spend the next month studying them. I also have to practice writing tasting notes so that I can get them done in under 10 minutes.

It will be a busy, intense, month.

john