amateur de vin: a lover of wine

For many sitting the 2026 MW exams, yesterday was a day of reckoning -- the MW released the full list of wines and questions (which you can view here). For the two years I have sat this exam, I would record my answers, or as much as I could remember, in a notebook afterwards so that I could check myself once the wines were announced. An important thing to remember is that correct identification of the wines is not the be all, end all of this exam -- a lot of points can be all

Thanks for supporting this blog! This post contains affiliate links, which means I may earn a commission if you click and buy. During a trip to the UK last week, I had the extraordinary opportunity to taste a bit of wine history – the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay. The fully appreciate why this matters, here is some back story: The Judgement of Paris occurred May 24, 1976 (and therefore there are a number of celebratory 50th anniversary events this spring, more on that in

Another year, another polite email from the IMW letting me know that I have not been successful in my June exams. While this wasn’t a...

Last week I received an email I’d been waiting for all summer – I was accepted to the Master of Wine study programme! Even now, after...