A History of the WSET Diploma with Guilhem Vial

Guilhem, would you like to share a few lines about your experience in obtaining the Diploma? An innocuous question posed to all freshly graduated students, which immediately sparked a form of misplaced pride in me. “They’re asking ME how I achieved this coveted and difficult diploma? Absolutely! Do you have two hours?” However, this excess of pride was brief. For as I saw myself already recounting my life with a disillusioned air to beginners eager for advice, like Charles said, I have only the melody but not the harmony of this music.

Indeed, my journey in obtaining this diploma was somewhat tumultuous. Where my usual light-heartedness and calm used to suffice to get me through challenges without flinching, this time they wouldn’t be enough. Yet, I had obtained Level 3 with distinction, through notes and vineyard maps, but without the slightest misstep. No, this time the problem was not so much in mobilizing knowledge, but in articulating it into a thought process that had to answer questions far beyond the scope of reflection to which the French university model accustoms us. An exercise in conciseness and perspective, which was a challenge for me who loves to wrap light ideas in armor of grammar – an age-old skill in the VIAL family directly passed down by my mother – or “to bullshit my way out of that world” as my partner likes to remind me. “Conciseness” and “Perspective” therefore. Here, (two words, not a hundred), I had to push myself. Go against my nature to “hack the code” as Fanny often repeats. And she’s right. This Anglicism is not too much. We indeed need to “hack” our friends across the Channel who have a level of rigor and expectation quite different from ours. And for the bravado-filled, reckless Latin like me, assimilating Anglo-Saxon rigor was far from a cup of tea! The notion of “Training” has never been more relevant.

Training, indeed, was fundamental for me. Especially compared to most of my peers and their journeys: exams passed on the first try, sometimes with distinction, all while taking an hour every day to run and “clear their heads” because before, when they were freelance in IT projects in Barcelona, they neglected themselves too much. But now that they have reoriented themselves in a “passion” field, they have decided to favor their work/health/pleasure balance… “Oh, but you know a bit about the wine world? – No, just a little, I’ve always liked the calle mucho I drank on the Ramblas, so I thought, go ahead Jean Kévin, take the plunge!” And yes, because I’m from the 2023 class and was therefore in class with all the data analysts, cryptocurrency miners, and other traders who were looking for meaning in life after COVID and decided to reorient themselves. And if I mock a little (but without malice eh #vaseline #2024) it’s because in reality I was jealous! Jealous of seeing these novices succeed with a relative knowledge of the field (WSET 3, sure) but having a work and reflection capacity honed like a knife. While I, a poor sinner convinced of knowing, filled with certainties, blinded by passion and several vintages under my belt, thought I knew everything and that this exam would be just a formality… I was in for a rude awakening.

No, assuredly, for profiles like mine (and it is to them that I address myself when writing these few lines) the step will be higher to climb, in the sense that passion serves no purpose for the Diploma. While it was, for me, the reason why I embarked on this diploma. Moreover, many students did not necessarily have a passion for wine at the start, or nearly lost it along the way. No, to succeed you need work, dedication, a lot of method, questioning yourself, and a lot of humility. It will be hard not to doubt. Failures – especially if you haven’t had many in your career – will seem difficult to overcome. To the point of wanting to throw it all away. But you must not. You must not lose confidence in yourself, and you must not doubt your worth. Something that happened to me and often happens to students if I believe my conversations with Anne. However, being well surrounded, by loved ones but also and especially by the pedagogical team – and it is a real strength of WiSP – you climb back up and learn. Then, not more on the blue slates of the Moselle valley or the beneficial effects of the Cape Doctor on the South African vineyard, but rather on this famous rigor, counter-intuitive for me. On this way of thinking, of organizing ideas. This way of presenting facts to serve a message more important than the facts themselves. Because what I managed to “hack” is this: the idea takes precedence over the facts. No one will hold it against you if you say 40hl/ha instead of 35, as long as you put into perspective that soil work, the 24 months of aging in new barrels (What? I work in Saint-Emilion, we think wood is cool!) and the cost of labor in France justify a high level of quality and price and that the slowdown of the American market represents a threat to the great Bordeaux wines. And there you are. “Pass with la classe”