Drumroll please

“In victory, you deserve Champagne. In defeat you need it.”

― Napoleon Bonaparte

Well, I am pleased to report that today is a day of victory -- you guessed it, I got the email this afternoon confirming that I passed my D3 exams last May and as such, have completed the WSET Diploma!

While I'm not drinking proper Champagne, I did open a special bottle. This blanc de blancs is made in the same style of Champagne, but is produced in Willamette Valley, OR. I picked up this bottle when Danielle and I had our epic PNW road trip in the fall of 2019.

Some snaps from our visit to the Evening Land tasting room.

I adore blanc de blancs (sparkling made solely from white grapes; in this case, Chardonnay) more than other forms of fizz because I love the weight of it, the mouthfeel that is unique to this style. This particular bottle has had quite a journey, from California to Texas in the back of my Subaru, and then again to Minnesota. I brought it with me with the intent of opening it when I closed on the house, but that ended up being such a cluster that its been waning away in my fridge ever since. Today was the perfect excuse to finally open it -- and it was exactly as I remembered, bright acidity and citrus notes, fine bubbles, and that body that I mentioned before -- a really excellent glass to celebrate with.

While in essence, the last 12 weeks of waiting have flown by, the last week or so has been pure torture (by the by, the results came exactly 12 weeks to the day). I've been checking my email obsessively, and each day talking myself in and out of confidence that I passed multiple times. As a naturally anxious and rather impatient person, I can't say that I deal with this kind of waiting particularly well. Thank goodness it is over (and here I am, toying with the idea of applying to the MW program -- but that's a topic for another day). The timing today couldn't have been more ideal, either. I got an unexpected package in the mail from my brother -- an original Astral Weeks on vinyl, something I've been scouring vintage shops for for quite some time. I called him up to thank him and chat, and we ended up on zoom when the results came through. He got to witness my freak out first hand, haha. I can't explain the relief I feel -- I must have read the email 50 times to make sure I was reading it correctly -- and then I had this horrible thought of a second email coming through, explaining an administrative mistake and I'd actually failed horribly. I need to work on my self confidence, obviously.

I know this is a rather rambling post, but I'm so thrilled I can't think straight and my hands are shaking!

So what's next? In the next 8-10 weeks I can expect official confirmation that I've earned the Diploma (even though I already know I have), along with the certificate and pin. I can also start using the official postnominal dipWSET (terrible postnominal, but you can bet I'm going to use it anyway). And then I get to go to graduation in London in January! And then...well, that's yet to be determined.