Not sure who’ll remember, but at the end of last year I was finishing up my first year of the WSET Dilpoma. I had to do a piece of coursework on…and I’m not making this up…the Renaissance in Gin! What a great topic?! But the journey from starting it to it finishing (last week) was a bit on the strange side!
First up, I loved the coursework. I spent hours reading book after book on the history of gin, how you make it, and anything else that was even remotely relevant. Great topic, especially when you’re looking at Georgian and Victorian Britain. Some nuts stuff went on back in the day, and if you like your booze or history (preferably both!) then get yourself a copy of Olivia Williams book “Gin, Glorious Gin”.
Anyway, I finally got round to writing it all down. Dotted all the I’s and crossed all the T’s with all the referencing, and in it went. I was pretty chuffed with how it’d gone, and it really got me happy and ready to have a go at Year 2 as soon as I got the marks back and could sign up!
When the marks got released all the good feeling just dropped like a stone. I got a straight “fail”. What? I mean, what? I couldn’t believe it! I was gutted. Sod everyone, sod the WSET, they can all go swing, how could I have failed? I got advised to send it for a remark, so I did, but I was fed up. I was rubbish, my blog was rubbish, I knew nothing about wine, no-one liked me, I was going to end up living in a cardboard box at the end of a garden somewhere. Oh the joys of anxiety disorders!
Well the remark came through last week. The “fail” was now a “pass with merit”. The original marker had just not liked how I referenced something, but on explanation they decided there was nothing wrong with it. So happy days are here again! I’ve already had the books out to start learning for year 2. Now I’ve just got to work out where to find the £2k to pay for it…
Cheers
Photo: from Good Things Magazine
