To Mock a Mocking Bird
Not a newsletter about philosophic logic theory, just some info on the mock practical exams I did last week.
OK. Bear with me on this one, but I have to be really, like really vague about what the actuall wines were because other students are going to sit the exact same mock practical exams over the next few weeks and it would be very unfair of me to give even a glimmer of what the wines were.
I can’t really even give the split between wines in the flights, because that kinda clue might filter it’s way into the wider world as a hint or a clue, or a distraction.
All I’m going to say is that they followed the standard trend of; Paper 1 - White Wines. Paper 2 - Red Wines. Paper 3 - Anything Goes.
What Can I Even Tell You?
Let’s skirt around the periphery of the specific wines, through a lens of the things I did outside of the actual exams, and some of the perceived wisdom that most MW’s will pass down to other students, and why I ignore it.
Big piece of Advice. ‘Form a study group’.
I’m not saying don’t join a study group, but I am saying that if you don’t feel that it’s for you, that’s cool too.
I reached out to the group that helped me get through Stage 11, to see if we could get some booze and food on Tuesday evening. Luckily my buddy Mel had corralled some of the people I’m not good at contacting to go to dinner while I was in London.
Tuesday daytime was Paper 1 white wines, and I’ll let you know right now that I only got three of the wines right. I thought I'd done OK, until we discussed our way through them.
I think I’m going to need to figure out something here, as that was my worst paper in the exam last year, and I definitely felt a bit rusty for a 12 wine mock. Forgot some stuff on the day. The idea is that maybe a couple of days before the exam I do a timed 12 wine white wine mock with answers, as a more thorough warm up before the first exam.
Looking back, we all went to Rust in Austria2 in Jan 2022. One of us passed both Theory and Practical at their first stage 2 attempt last year, two of us didn’t (me included), one of us is sitting stage 2 for the first time this year after taking a year out, one of us didn’t sit stage 1 exam and is back in this year, and two have made peace with dropping out of the programme for now.
We’re all at different stages, and I’m the only person in my Stage 1 study group re-sitting this year after not passing last year. We all live miles apart.
Stage 2 for me, feels disparate, and I’ve made peace with not making the effort to slog it to London every Saturday and Thursday. The admin and cost of that feels more overwhelming than just cracking on from my settee with my laptop rightfully on my lap.
And Another Thing
Another tip to ignore: ‘Do lots of Blind Tastings study’
Paper 2 was the red wines, and after that mock, which I did flipping well in, I went back to my jail cell3, and tried to mark the paper, just to check I’d scraped a pass, and I think I did.
I think it’s OK if I say it was quite a tricksy paper, and I nearly ran out of time trying to get the wines placed correctly. In the end I had all the countries, and most of the regions and most of the grapes. I even was about there one quality and winemaking too.
The thing that has come in handy is sighted tastings, instead of blind tastings. Not just laterals and grids and structural comparisons, but just drinking wines out of context at home.
Blind tasting can be about hard taste recall that can lead you to your dry notes.
My partner and I are both in the depths of study at the moment, and we have a weekly planner of work, study and shared downtime that we schedule each week. In our downtime, I’ve started casually drinking pairs or trios of similar wines with my Coravin.
It really helped with two of the wines in the Paper 2 Mock, when you over-study wines you actually can start to mess with your taste recall.
Remember that amazing bottle you had that one time at that restaurant? I bet you didn’t jot down the structural elements in 2 minutes before picking up your knife.
The common method of deductive reasoning is fine if you have Barolo or Brunello. The structure will (hopefully) get you there; acid, tannin, colour, alcohol, etc etc.
A big, chunky red that could be reasonably argued for quite a few things, sometimes just has to taste right.
I’m finding right now that drinking wines that I might not normally casually drink, playing some stupid card games on our nights off, and just enjoying wine is helping with recall.
An MW With A Reputation
I’m going on record to say that Natasha Hughes MW is lovely, and if anyone tells you otherwise, well, they obviously haven’t been studying hard enough.
Our Paper 3 session was led by Natasha, and it was very useful, lively but relaxed, firm but fair. It was the first time I’d met Natasha in real life, she mentioned she occasionally ready this newsletter, so I’ve already peaked.
Paper 3 is the anything goes day, and probably my favourite paper. It’s a tad more technical, and having your facts and figures prepped in advance can really, really help.
I’m working on a P3 crib sheet with just simple, clear structural and production notes. There are some really solid decision ‘process flow charts’ for P3, that you simply can’t do for Paper 1 or 2, it would be too big and fiddly.
Is it fortified and dry? Sherry.
Is it brown and very, very sweet? PX or Rutherglen.
Once you’ve got that, you can dive in with largely pre-rehearsed technical info, backed up with what you can taste.
I have no idea who said it, but something along the lines of;
“Paper 3 is an ‘open book’ theory exam, because the answer is in the glass in front of you” - Anon4, MW Study Day, 2022/3
Further Listening
I did a podcast about Flint Vineyard for Scribehoud, with Patrick Galbraith.
was on it as well, and well, I haven’t mentioned it in my newsletter yet, so here you are. If you haven’t listened yet, go and take a look.It’s about English Wine.
English Wine: The Art of Doing Things Differently
“First, Patrick chats to Henry Jeffreys, the celebrated drinks journalist, about his highly-acclaimed new book Vines in a Cold Climate: the people behind the English wine revolution. Henry tells him that the world of English wine is still very much in its infancy – he also paints a picture of an industry full of extraordinary people who will stop at nothing to produce the best product they can. Henry tells Patrick about the history of wine in this country and how important it is that winemakers get their branding right.
Patrick then, based on Henry’s recommendation, drives to Flint Vineyard, on the Norfolk / Suffolk border, where hares lollop among the vines and sheep eat the weeds. Flint is one of the most interesting English winemakers around. They do things their way and the results, Patrick learns when they get a few bottles out, are extraordinary.”
You know who you are.
Hi Rod! Cracking Job by the way.
When I stay in London I have a secret old converted court of law building I say in, that is super cheap, because the rooms are LITERALLY the old holding cells for people on trial. I really like the place, and it’s oddly quite homely.
Ray O’Connor MW got in touch to close the loop on this one, telling me this is something he’s definitely said on a number of occasions. He was also in Rust with us for a few days in 2022, so it all adds up that this is a quote from Ray. Nice to have a bit of closure on that.