This is just a super brief update on the overall status of the MW thing as it stands.

A little procedural update. After not passing the Stage 2 exams for more times than I can remember, the Institute stipulates that I can’t just keep resitting the exam and failing. Fair enough.

The last time I sat the Stage 2 exam was in June 2025, so I was unable to register for September 2025, and have another stab at the exam this year. I know that there are are lots of great students going for it again, at various stages of the journey.

I’m actually enjoying not thinking about it much this year. Did I mention I’ve started that Podcast with Brad? That, and being busy at work is keeping me quite happy at the moment.

But, the Applications. Are. Open. for September 2026, and I’d half mentioned to a couple of people close to me that I’m deffo not done with it all, at all, just yet.

Do I Apply? Can I?

So, I had until Friday 8th May (later this week) to get in touch with the MW Education people, and see what the lay of the land is for me to dip my toes back in. So I did. Last week.

Specifically I asked:

Subject: Rejoining the Study Programme in Sept 26

Message: I’d like to enquire about the next steps in rejoining the study programme.

After three attempts at the S2 exam, and taking this year away from the programme, am I still eligible to rejoin as an S2 student, or am I required to fully reapply this year?

If you could clarify please, as the application deadline is the end of next week.

Thanks,

Dan

Then, I checked in with a couple of study groups for their groupthink on the potential responses, I put my phone back in my pocket.

Potential responses were:

1. Wait another year, apply in May 2027, and rejoin the program as S2 in Sept 2027.

2. Apply this week, and start from scratch again, heading into S1 in September.

Couple of asked if I’d actively deferred this year, or whether I’d just stepped away, as that might have made a procedural difference. Plus, lots of positive “no harm in asking!!”, “would be good to have you back!!” type affirmations, which are always comforting.

Without too much fanfare, the next morning a simple email reply came.

RE: Subject: Rejoining the Study Programme in Sept 26

Message: Thank you for your email.

The readmission policy means that unfortunately you are not eligible to reapply this year. You will be able to apply to rejoin the programme in September 2027.

You will need to reapply fully and take the entrance exam, at which point you can request to go straight into stage two.

Best wishes,

That’s actually not the worst thing in the world.

Let me explain.

I had a looming sense of doubt about getting back into study, because there was nothing in the student guide that I could see about the options to students that were in my position. I know more than one person who is in the same limbo, and so it can’t possibly be a unusual situation for the Institute to clarify.

I half-thought that I’d have to re-sit Stage 1, which would have meant spending the next year (September - June), preparing and going through all the foundation stuff again, the introductory study days, and the mixed flight 12-wine tastings that I spent most of 2022/3 doing with a naïve aspiration for a swift process.

Having to do all that again, after passing first time in June 2023, would have felt like a step backwards. Not to over-mention the £5k that I’d have to pay again.

Instead, by intention is, from September, try and act like a student again, hop back into some blind study groups, read more about wine. Perhaps dredge my way through some practice essay papers, dry notes when I’m on the train. Slowly, slowly, getting ready to apply and sit the entrance exam again.

All, just to prove to myself whether I’m ready for another go at the full Stage 2, by this time next year, so I can reapply with a bit of confidence.

So, that’s that. I’ll carry on with the pod, and taking the rest of the summer off. Then, we’ll be (unofficially) back at it from September.

Dan

Second Press: Episode 8.

If you’ve made it this far.

This week’s episode of the Second Press podcast is with Richard ‘Chief’ Siddle, and it’s a great one.

Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

sp#08 - richard siddle: wine trade journalism and the impact of ai

our guest is richard siddle, reflecting on the reality of the trade where being made redundant is practically a rite of passage for anyone with a long-term aspiration in business journalism. a man who built a career out of those very redundancies, leading us from the niche world of optics and grocery retail into the heart of the wine biz with the buyer…

Listen now

3 months ago · Dan Kirby and Bradley Horne

Younger people are clued up on the percentage of their disposable income being spent on drinks they can more easily afford at home, we’ve recently come to terms with this being a significant driver of ‘at-home-ism’ or ‘no-booze’ events, and daytime activities. A whole months subscription to Netflix is £6, a single pint of Madri is £6.501.

So, you can watch Netflix for a whole month, on your own, in your house, while simultaneously scrolling through reels on Instagram for the price of one pint of shit manufactured lager. The maths doesn’t really add up for the amount of potential enjoyment you may receive in return for your £6.50.

So, what?

Well, I quite like the pub. The beer is better at the pub. Lovely pint of cask ale simply can not be done properly at home. There are also people at the pub, and for all my own preferences on personality type, for the most part, the people gathered in any pub generally get on.

Pubs set their stall out in a number of ways, and by doing that attract certain types of people. If there’s a vinyl ‘Sky Sports’ banner outside the pub, I won’t go in that pub, because I know the type of people that will be inside. If they sell home made scotch eggs, there’s a good change I’ll go out of my way to get there.

Most pubs, classic, local, country pubs, drink-first pubs, have a shit wine list. Most food-led pubs, overcharge for broadly the same shit wine selection, from marginally better wineries. Gastro Pubs, putting my opinions on the phrase aside, do a better job on wine, but you’re probably there for an occasion, it’s not like you’re there, splashing out on a nice wine, instead of a quick half on a Sunday afternoon.

I host a lot of wine tasting events.

I did two last week, both in pubs.

Pub One was a posh pub, with an aspirational wine list of things most people will have never heard of, at reasonable prices for what they were. I was talking about the winery I work for, comparing English wines to some other similar styles from around the world.

A Thursday night in Norfolk. I’d say almost all of the guests would be comfy proffering the phrase “I know what i like, but I don’t know much about wine”, when asked about their wine knowledge. It was fine, a solid tasting, with solid comments, and a lovely audience.

The pub is food-led, premium, tapas-ish, and a good Sunday roast, not cheap. We were upstairs in a private space, but the atmosphere downstairs was a muddle. A very tidy little ‘drinkers bar’ area with a pool table that you probably don’t want to play for fear of getting fingerprints on the polished rails. Modern art on the walls. Newly pointed red brick fireplace surround. Beer coasters with the pubs logo on them. Stools at the bar look like they’ve never been sat on, a hint towards an idea, rather than a communal drinking spot. Quiet couples having a date night treat in the dining area. The pub is in the middle of nowhere though, so always one of them driving, no point getting a bottle is there?

You know exactly the type of pub I’m talking about, there’s one up the road from you. It’s doing well, owned by that guy from up-the-way, the one that made a fortune doing something else and spent it all on a pub. Looks beautiful. You go there for a reason, because it ticks every box of the ‘good country pub’ framework: Nice menu & wine list, young, handsome staff in matching polo shirts, there’s everything to like, pizza on a Wednesday, summer garden party, electric chargers in the car park for the Tesla.

Pub Two

It’s village pubs that don’t conform to this framework that are closing, except a handful. That was pub number two for me this week, and the reason for this newsletter.

The beauty of a rural Suffolk village pub run by the landlord, his wife, and their kids. The landlord is a ‘tinkerer’, kit for making cider and spirits in one shed, experimenting with brewing their own beer in another, a walk in fridge repurposed as the wine cellar. Clearly into booze of all sorts, they’ve planted a hectare of vines on the field next door for a project.

An astonishing wine collection, on display, in wine racks in any corner that hasn’t got a pile of logs for the open fire in it. 30 bottles of generic ‘house’ Bordeaux superior, 2020 vintage obviously, magnums of Ch Musar here, older vintages in bottles there, a dozen Two Paddocks Pinot Noir from 2012. All just kicking about, next to tables of guests sampling a new fortified English red from a winery in Wales. A rotating selection of local beers.

Any pub that can fill 30 spaces for a wine tasting that starts at 4pm on a Saturday afternoon, with locals from the village, is doing something right in my book. Wine people, ready to listen, asking me interesting questions, comparing our wines to wines they’ve tried elsewhere, or on holiday. Open mined to compare and contrast the same wine from a 20ltr keykeg against the version from the bottle, dispensed on the landlords own Lindr machine, bought to see if wine on tap made sense.

We all stayed for a classic English buffet supper, of home cooked beef cold cuts, herby, buttery new potatoes, salad, homemade quiche, followed by an exceptional selection of carefully chosen hunks of squidgy local cheeses, blobs of onion chutney, and crunchy baguette. Honest food done without pretence or a single cut corner.

Finished by 7pm, the car park was full, everyone in the village was there for a pint, a chat, one chap mentioned that Jim-up-the-road had some bits nicked from his farm buildings earlier in the day, and to make sure you’ve locked any outbuildings. The real-life social media. I drove past at least three empty pubs on my way back, they’ll be the ones that inevitably close.

Look, I doubt either pub needs the money if I’m being honest, and both are reliant on older, perhaps more affluent customers. One is run with all the soul of an accountant maintaining an asset, and the other puts the enjoyment of the product and the process front and centre. I know which one I’d rather live a walk away from.

If you’re still paying, you simply do not have to. In fact, in a way, at this stage I’d rather you didn’t, at least for a bit, until I dip my toe back in the murky MW waters. More on that later.

So, first up. Go and listen to Second Press podcast, then leave a comment. I’m not going to pester my newsletter subscribers with notifications for every episode. I might send a note around every couple of months.

The first 5 episodes are here:

Second Press: A Wine-ish Podcast

A wine-ish podcast for the curious and the kindred. It’s about the people, the culture, the business, and everything in between.

By Dan Kirby

Or listen on Apple Podcasts like 65% of all other listeners.

Apple Podcasts

Or wherever you listen to podcasts.

We’ve had over 1500 downloads already and the feedback so far has be really nice.

And for a newsletter:

The podcast has been taking up way more time than I expected, and I’m thoroughly enjoying it.

Back when I used to be in a band1, we wrote and recorded all our own stuff. I got pretty confident in a digital audio workspace with microphones and audio editing vocals and guitars. I like the technical side of it, and fiddling about with compressors and EQ.

When we started this idea of the podcast I knew immediately that I’d want to do all the editing myself. Brad, knows all the people, and started booking some of the best guests from across the industry, and I started scrolling through Sound on Sound looking at the best entry-level USB/XLR mics and reading up on the current state of digital audio software.

I’m often surprised by how many DIY podcasts have “difficult” audio, and by that I mean, the content might be brilliant, interesting, insightful, but impossible to actually listen to. Whether that means the audio is just too quiet/echoey, poorly recorded through laptop microphones or ripped from zoom recordings, or just plain distorted.

Listen to any mainstream podcast and the audio is great, listen to most DIY podcasts and it’s not. I wanted the audio from the get go to be nice. Clean, bright, alive, loud and comfortable.

“Difficult” can also mean badly mixed, with people talking over each other or volume levels all over the place. I’ve spent a good few hours on each episode snipping and tweaking the actual conversation into something that people want to listen to.

Yes, that involves a tiny bit of creative licence with a subtle reordering of the odd sentence, or shifting some cross-talk around, or shortening bit of waffle. The conversations and the structure of the chats we’ve had so far remain true to the speakers intent, and yet flow more coherently.

At it’s heart Brad is the storyteller, and I’m the enquirer, and we want the podcast to reflect that by making a 30minute episode that is worth the listeners time.

The other thing is the soundtrack music. I knew that I wanted an ear-worm. There’s a handful of silly, radio-style podcasts that I like, and the theme tune to each of them is catchy as heck. You can say what you like about the one I picked, there were a few options, but it sets the tone exactly as I want it to, as well as being frustratingly memorable.

I’m a nerd about everything. I don’t really bother with much that doesn’t REALLY interest me. Part of starting a podcast for me, is the process of doing it, well.

Part of doing the MW is the process. I’ve replaced one with the other for now, and I’m hopeful that with the calibre of people we’re chatting to on a weekly basis, and the contacts I’m making through it already, that the two should go hand-in-hand eventually.

See ya. GO LISTEN.

Dan

I’m quite excited to say, that with quite a big nudge from … we’ve started a Podcast.

You can head over to the new Second Press Substack page, or find the trailer on which ever podcast player yo…

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Reasons I’m not drinking alcohol for a bit.

1. Trying to stay …

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Ok, so I had a couple of weeks off over Christmas this year. It ended up being super chill, and I’m not a huge one for blow out Christmas events anyway.

My …

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Shure Medikit

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Shock

noun

1. a sudden upsetting or surprising event or experience.

Friday morning, 11am(ish) was the MW results day dead…

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I’m bored, and lazy and my summer of doing more social, more exercise, and perhaps interacting with friends is not going to plan. I’m more content with doing nothing at all. There’s probably a diagnosis, but in my mind it’s just stasis.

Results are still 6 weeks away. I’ve sure I haven’t passed any of it again, and that the MW journey is probably over. With no need to study this summer, and most likely no need to get back into study again come September, I’m at a bit of a loss.

I can’t reconcile the time and effort I’ve put into this with not passing the exams. I keep telling myself it’s not all been wasted. That I’ve got enough from the process without passing. There are positives.

I like purpose, I like to think I’m working towards something. I obsess about things I *could* do.

I spent most of last Sunday creating a costing spreadsheet and business plan for a Pizza Van as a side project.

I thought I’d waste some time totting up how much we’d put into the MW journey so far. I’ve got all this info because I’ve kept a separate bank acct for MW study since setting up the GoFundMe way back in Sept 2020.

The breakdown is below. It shows that I’ve personally spent about £23,000 on the MW so far. That spread over the last 4+ years is around £5,000 per year, with the first and most recent years, for different reasons being a little easier on the bank balance.

I can think of much worse things to spend that on. I might have a nicer bathroom, or kitchen, or car, but those material things are no less effective today than they were a few years ago.

Back in April a nice young chap gave us a quote of £20,000 on five new sash windows. When you think about the friends, the people, the places, the time, the wines, the experience, the knowledge… but exclude the stress and anguish, I’d say it’s worth more than one sash window per year. We never spoke to him again.

My original GoFundMe pitch was: “Lots of good people deserve a go at the MW, but can’t afford it themselves”. If I hadn’t raised that first £5k, there’s not a chance on earth I’d be in this position 4 years later. One where I’m able to look back at £23k of my own money spent and not be crippled with debt. So there’s that.

Here you go. Paid subscribers can scroll down for what the full P&L looks like over the past few years.

Dan

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Next week it’s National Lightening Safety Awareness Week. This week is vital because lightning strikes can…

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First thing to address is the dwindling subscriber numbers.

People who read for free: UP 📈

People who choose to pay: DOWN 📉

To be expected. It has gone beyond the point of b…

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Not passing the MW (yet?…

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I won’t trudge through the details again, except to say that it takes practice.

Whatever it’s worth, I’m bac…

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Firstly, the title of this piece may lead you to believe this is a post about actual accessibility in the form of inclusive spaces, and braille on wine labels, which is probably more clearly c…

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So, a quick note to those of you that pay to subscribe, the frequ…

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