Wine Location Specialist exam

I am a certification slut. I admit it. I like taking tests and finding out what I know and what I don't know. I added another test to my already full plate. I took it yesterday and am now awaiting the results.

Normally after a test I generally have a pretty good idea of how I did, this one I am not so sure.

The Wine Location Specialist Certificate is offered by the Center for Wine Origins. This organization's charter is to promote the understanding that Terroir matters and that well-known wines of quality carry a sense of place with them. In this case, the certification is concerned with mostly the Champagne and Porto appellations. The goal is to raise awareness of (generally) Americans that the use of the terms Champagne and Port are not generic descriptors for a style of wine but that they are the brands or trademarks of these specific wine-making regions and the use of these terms carries the full weight of history, tradition, and terroir with them.

Since I am currently studying fortified and Port wines and will be studying sparkling and Champagne wines for a test next January, it seemed to make sense to gather all the information that I could on these topics and attempt this test as well.

On April 13th, I signed up for the course, let them know I agreed with their cause, while not actually signing a petition to send to congress to legally restrict the uses of these terms to just their original use. ( Note: today the TTB which controls all things alcoholic, allows for the term "American Champagne" to describe sparkling wine made in the USA. Champagne producers object to the use of the name of a French region, with a considerable history of wine-making, to describe a style of wine made in the USA ). I then received a PDF file which would be the reference for the test. I also found that I would be taking the test on May 6th - just 3 weeks away, and on May 7th I would be taking my DAPS test for Fortified Wines. It has been an interesting 3 weeks.

The file is a little tricky to work with. It is well done and very attractive but it is 2 pages wide on the screen and in several cases 1/2 half of the page is a picture of somewhere in Champagne or the Douro Valley. You have to scroll back and forth across the page to make sure you got all the text before actually scrolling down to the next two pages. It is awkward to work with. It is also over 100 pages long ( 57 pages of 2 page text ). It was written by a Master of Wine, and I assume reviewed by the Champagne and Porto groups as how they wanted to be presented. As is with any of these type of tests, the reference is the Bible. Its statements are considered gospel.

I read the document twice, leeched out those facts that I thought would be good test questions and wrote my own 7 page synopsis of key facts. This became my study sheet. I thought I was ready for the test, but now I am not so sure.

The test was 2 part. A 50 question multiple-guess first part, and an Essay 2nd part. I treated it as a closed-book test, though nobody actually said anything one way or the other. I also think that if one had to look up the answers, one wouldn't have finished the test in the time limit anyway. The test is taken on-line and had a 1 hour time limit. Each question is on 1 page and you can't go back after a question is answered. This made it a little awkward. I have a slow DSL connection ( thank you ATT ) and I htink the server may have been overworked today because I waited what seemed like a long time for a couple of the questions to come up, and in one case I may have hit next question button twice in frustration and I might have totally skipped over one question as a result.

An then there were questions that I just had a hard time with. One question in particular jarred me. It went something like this: "In the spring season photosynthesis creates new sugars for the plant which are stored ..." a) in the roots, b) in the leaves, c) in the stem, d) someplace else. ". Well, in the Fall the sugars are stored in the permanent wood of the wine. In the Spring the sugars go into producing cellulose and other materials for new growth. the answer according to the reference is "in the roots" - which just isn't true. Being the way that I am, I knew the answer they wanted, but just couldn't bring myself to mark that one on the test. So I said in the stem - i.e. new shoots.

There were several question where I just did not like their choices of answers or in a couple of cases the questions themselves. Unfortunately passing for this test requires getting 40 out of the 50 questions correct.

I am hoping that in those cases other than where I obstinately put what I thought was the correct answer verses putting the answer that I think they wanted, that statistical odds would allow me to get at least a couple of them right and allow me to pass that part of the test.

I felt OK with the essay part. It had to do with the background history and reasons why appellations were created in the first place and what the appellation rules regulated. A maximum of 500 words were allowed and this section was not separate from the first part. You had 1 hour total for both parts of the test, however much time you took on either part. I started part 2 ( the 51st question ) with about 32 minutes to go. I had set the countdown time on my phone so I would know how much time I had left, except that it kept going to sleep after a couple of minutes and I had to turn it back on to see how much time was remaining.

I answered the question with somewhere around 300 words, I think. At this time I turned back to my phone to see how much time I had left to review my work or make revisions, etc. I don't remember what the phone said because as it was coming up, the screen flashed, and a note came up that read "Your test has been submitted". Huh ? Either I clicked something with my mouse, which I have been known to do if I am web-surfing and falling asleep at the wheel, or the page had a timer that decided that my hour had passed and that I was done. I assumed it was the later and that in this case, I was done no matter what.

So now I wait. I am told that the results will be available within a month.

Now ... even though I had some problems with the test, I liked the course and thought it worth while. The reference material is a good read. The topics are interesting and you learn things about Champagne and the Douro Valley that you might not find elsewhere. I also support and understand their desire to protect the "branding" of those two famous wine regions.

Check it out at the Wine Origins Website

john