MW Stage 1 Wines Revealed

A ruthless tasting, a few wins, and a cold reminder that in the exam room, nothing drinks the way you think it will

I don’t usually write tasting note retrospectives. But because I started this Substack to bring the MW experience closer to you, here I’ll go all in.

These are the wines from the actual Stage 1 Master of Wine tasting exam I just sat. And if you’re imagining a calm, clinical environment - you’re wrong. It’s a mindfuck. And it’s glorious. The other thing that’s very, very important is that this is not a flex exam. Few care if you get the grape and region right. Your reasoning is the essential. Even though I had some insane missed calls in this exam, I’m overall pretty happy with how I brought home certain conclusions on the wines.

P.S. If you’re sitting at home and thinking “mate, I’d guess that in a heartbeat”, you are truly kidding yourself. Eleven minutes per wine, write everything that comes to mind, try to remember all the tech sheets you wrote over the past 8 months, and repeat for 2 hours and 15 minutes. That was literally the pressure cooker of the MW exam.