What to do if you want to start the WSET Level 4 Diploma but are waiting on your Level 3 results

Woman drinking wine and reading

By Noelle Hale, Program Director, WSET Diploma

Many students hope to someday complete the WSET Diploma and be able to put the letters DipWSET after their name. Of course, a major hurdle is completing WSET Level 3. After you take the Level 3 exam, there is a long wait (up to 12 weeks) to receive your results before you can enroll in the Diploma. So if you’re motivated to continue on Diploma-level studies, how can you keep your study momentum up during the waiting period for your results? Here are some resources I recommend to students:

Reading

  • Your Level 3 book. Yes, it may be the last thing you want to look at again after the Level 3 exam, but the better you know everything in those pages, the more prepared you’ll be for Diploma studies.
  • Viticulture by Stephen Skelton MW is a comprehensive overview of general viticulture topics that you’ll cover in the first Diploma unit, but it’s still a user-friendly read.
  • Understanding Wine Technology by David Bird is a similarly comprehensive book focused on a broad array of winemaking topics.
  • The Concise Guide to Wine & Blind Tasting by Neel Burton is an excellent resource for tasting practice, which is one of the things students are always most excited (and nervous) about at the Diploma level.
  • I Taste Red, The Science of Wine and/or Flawless by Jamie Goode. I always learn something new whenever I pick up one of Jamie’s books, and he does a fantastic job of making complex, scientific wine topics easier to digest. You can also check out his article for NVWA about wine aromas!
  • And if you haven’t yet purchased the two indispensable reference books for higher-level wine studies, The Oxford Companion to Wine and The World Atlas of Wine, both by Jancis Robinson et al., now is a great time to do so.

Watching

Sometimes when you feel like you just can’t stand to read another page (we’ve all been there!), watching something wine-related is a nice change of pace. Plus, seeing winemaking equipment in use helps you understand how it works!

  • Any of the documentaries from WineMasters (if you’ve purchased NVWA Membership access, you can watch them all for free!)
  • The NVWA YouTube channel features a wealth of content from wine experts and lots of recorded webinars.
  • The YouTube channel for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) also has a variety of videos, including some excellent overviews of wine regions and winemaking.
  • “A Year in Champagne” and “A Year in Burgundy” documentaries
  • The movie Sour Grapes

Listening

I spent several years as a wine sales rep doing a lot of driving, including while I was a Diploma student, and podcasts were invaluable study tools for me. I always learn something new from the following podcasts:

  • Inside Winemaking
  • I’ll Drink to That!
  • Ungrafted
  • Bottled in China
  • Guildsomm
  • Wine Scholar Guild
  • Roadside Terroir
  • The Color of Wine
  • XChateau
  • Sustainable Wine
  • Wine, Work & Passion (hosted by NVWA’s own career counselor, Karen Wetzel!)

The wait time for WSET Level 3 results can feel like it stretches on forever, but using the time wisely can help you start your Diploma studies feeling confident!

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dipWSET, Diploma Manager, Instructor

Noelle Hale

Noelle’s passion for wine began on a trip to New Zealand, when she discovered Marlborough makes a lot more than just Sauvignon Blanc. When she got back home, she signed up for a WSET Level 2 class and leveraged that qualification to get hired in a tasting room. She recently completed her WSET Diploma, and when she’s not selling wine as a distributor rep in Santa Barbara, she’s teaching classes in wine country for the Napa Valley Wine Academy. You can also find her running, cooking or playing fetch with her corgi, Winston.