Our Next Adventure: WSET Level 2 Award in Spirits

Bart here. Katie and I missed our weekly get-togethers to discuss and taste wine after our certified sommelier test this past March.  While she still loves looking for the perfect wine for a certain situation, she has also become enamored with the cocktail, especially the Old Fashioned.  When ordering an Old Fashioned, however, bars typically ask what whiskey or bourbon one would like, and that created a new anxiety.  Katie did not know a lot about whiskey or bourbons, and she felt this needed to change.  I missed spending time with her and suggested our next educational adventure.  My running group also decided to join in the fun.  We are self-taught aficionados but never had any real organized education. We all wanted a little deeper dive. After a little research, we (four of us) decided to enroll in the WSET Level 2 Award in Spirits certification process.  With nearly 100 years of formal education between us, we embark on yet another journey of texts, computer modules, workbooks, practice tests, and a scheduled final exam. Well, this week it has officially started! Some of us have read the whole book and outlined it, others have barely opened it at all. Last night we met at my place. I set up a blind spirit tasting to get a sense of where we are starting.

Turns out, we’re all over the board.  Discussion was led by Katie and was lively!  We’ve got some work to do.  

Six weeks till test time! This is the only test I have ever studied for that has a grade for worse than fail! It’s true—you can actually get a Fail-unclassified!  I’m not sure but it may mean they promise not to tell anyone you took it, if you promise never to come back. It should be fun!