By In my latest article for the Napa Valley Wine Academy, I explain the concept of “funneling” on a blind tasting exam and how it can help students pass the notorious D3 tasting exam that is part of the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines program:
For many WSET diploma students, one of the most intimidating parts of the program is the D3 blind tasting exam, which involves writing tasting notes, quality conclusions and various identification answers about 12 wines. The WSET always publishes the exam wine list a couple of days after the test, and its publication usually produces two responses: jubilation from students who got a lot of the wines “right” and despair from students who didn’t.
While the post-exam psychological boost of acing wine identification is nice, it’s important to remember that the majority of the available points come from accurately observing the different characteristics of each wine (pale intensity, dry, full body, etc.), rather than correctly identifying where the wine is from or what grape variety it is. You can actually pass the D3 tasting exam without correctly identifying any of the wines.
While you’ll have to answer some identification questions, if you end up choosing a grape or region that is wrong but makes logical sense based on how the wines taste, you can pick up a lot of points for showing the examiner your thought process. One way to accomplish this on exam day is to think of identification arguments like a funnel, which starts wide at the top and becomes more narrow as you move toward your conclusion. A good funnel helps an examiner award you points for the parts of your argument that were logical, even if your final answer was incorrect.
Noelle Hale 