For the benefit of all my friends who asked how I passed my WSET with such a horrible level of alcohol tolerance and little exposure to wines. Well I had to study EXTRA hard! It was so tedious.

And guys here's the ultimate guide that I painstakingly compiled for all you who barely drink but wish to pass your wset too! Level 2 can be considerably tough for someone with no background in wine, since SQ skipped level 1 as its not required in the sommelier program.

1. Devise study plan

2. Buy a set of Colourful Pens

3. Print countless Maps of World Continents

4. Get a Sketch Book to Mindmap

If you've already attended the course, you would have received a summarised text of the LEARNING OUTCOME with Element 1 to 7. This set of note is extremely important because it is gonna be the frame of your entire study plan.


I followed closely to this note and devised my own study plan from there. Its makes learning so much easier than just reading off the chapters from textbook memorising blindly(which is practically impossible).

Don't leave out the smallest details in your mindmap thinking its insignificant because the exams could come out with the random-est specific question you never thought you would be tested on. Maybe like, which term is used on an Italian wine label to indicate that the grapes were grown in the historic centre of the district- Classico, Crianza, Riserva or Cortese? And the best vineyards of the Northern Rhone are coastal, steep or flat?

(Keep in mind to refer to WORKBOOK when studying style and quality of the wine. They give a good summary in point form as compared to the textbook.)



Element  1: Factors that influence wine style and winemaking/maturation
Range 1 to 5- Mindmap


Element 2: Principal grape varieties
Range 1 to 2- Mindmap
Range 3- Print 6 maps of world continents and indicate the producing countries and regions for each principal grape variety, and their style and quality (Lazy people like me decided to assign each colour to every grape variety so you don't drown yourself memorising all of them) What I did was:

Range 4- Refer to table as generated (Common labelling terms indicating style or quality)


Element 3: Regionally important grape varieties
Range 1 to 2-Print 2 maps of world continents and indicate the regionally important grape varieties and named wines, 1 for white wines and 1 for red wines (you probably want another separate map of ITALY for the red wines), and their style and quality
Range 3- Refer to table as generated (Common labelling terms indicating style or quality)

Element 3 on regionally important named wines is extremely confusing from the original note. It was categorised under continents of the world and then by grape varieties and named wines. These are wines that are not recognised by their variety but rather by their GI(geographical indication). This means that the name of the wine itself is the REGION, subcategorised by their grape variety (with individual black and white grapes) and then finally the style and quality of the wine. Therefore, I suggest your note for this segment be a reversed version of Element 2.

Which means instead of labelling the region of a particular grape variety on the world map, you now indicate the regions on the world map of White/Red Wines and then label the grape variety, with its style and quality. Coloured pens will be your saviour for this segment! You can't be embarrassed about colouring on a world map when you barely drink and cannot read french but dying to pass an exam. So pick up those coloured pens and assign each to a region. What I did was:
You should have 2 maps for white and red each, plus a separate map of Italy for the reds(Piemonte, Veneto, and Tuscany), since mine ran out of space.

There you have all the major regionally important named wines made in the key wine producing countries of the world.

Element 4: Sparkling wines and winemaking/maturation
Range 1 to 2- Mindmap
Range 3- Refer to table as generated (Common labelling terms indicating style or quality)

Element 4 ain't so bad since I have a great interest in sparkling wines. I organised the contents by mindmapping off the methods of production for sparkling wines, mainly with Champagne, Cremant, Saumur and Cava produced with the Bottle method and ASTI DOCG, Sekt, and Prosecco produced with the Tank method. Perhaps the slightly confusing part on this topic would be the methods of FERMENTATION. ASTI itself has a slightly different fermentation process(only one fermentation and CO2 is only trapped towards the end to achieve the right level of carbonation).

The most important part of this segment would be the GRAPE VARIETAL for each type of sparkling wine.


Element 5: Sweet and fortified wines
Range 1 to 2- Mindmap
Range 3- Refer to table as generated (Common labelling terms indicating style or quality)

By now you would be so drained and tired of all the wines to digest any further and there is A WHOLE LOAD MORE to study for this chapter. What I did was to skip this chapter and take on something more interesting like wine and food pairing in Range 3 of Element 7. Anyway, Sherry and Port IS BORING. Hahaha. Until you learn to pair them with cheese of course.

You probably need to refer more to the workbook to get a good picture on this chapter. I did the usual mindmap with four types of Sherry(Pedro Ximenez, Amontillado-medium, Oloroso-cream, Fino-pale cream) and three types of Port(Ruby, Vintage, Tawny). I almost died studying this chapter.

I'm not sure if you want me to go into details on sweet wines in this chapter. You would probably fall asleep reading it, well because THAT'S WHAT HAPPENED TO ME.


Element 6: International Spirits
Range 1 to 2- Mindmap
Range 3- Refer to table as generated (Common labelling terms indicating style or quality)

Flavouring and production methods are the major topics for this segment. But READ EVERYTHING anyway.

Element 7: Storage/ Selection/ Service
READ EVERYTHING
Range 1 to 4- Mindmap EVERYTHING

I bought a book from wine folly and if you don't already know, wine folly is a website founded by Madeline Puckette and Justin Hammack. The company has built an educational wine blog that publishes articles, videos, and infographics to help simplify wine. I am absolutely in love with their graphics and illustrations of wine tutorials. They make studying wine so much easier, and the fact that everything is so colourful makes learning so interesting. You don't have to buy their books. Click here for their pinterest page.


Because wine and food pairing can be rather complex and subjective, I tried referring to other sources besides the textbook for further insights, and wine folly was very informative. I made my wine and food pairing notes cross-referencing both books. Click here for wine and food pairing notes

Common Labelling terms indicating Style or Quality A.K.A. Legally defined Quality Indications 

This chapter can be quite important for learning to pick good wines since you learn to read the labels. I can't say for sure that I now know how to pick good wines. I feel like Level 3 would probably give more depth to picking and appreciating wines. Under the EU GI there are two categories mainly PDO and PDI and it is labelled on most bottles in a wide variety of languages like French, Italian, Spanish and German. They are basically branding for wines governed by laws in techniques of winemaking. But it can be tricky as well because wine without a certified strict winemaking technique doesn't necessarily mean its bad wine. In fact, it could be a good wine if the producer had blended it well.

You can however learn to differentiate the wines by their hierarchy which is labelled with legally defined quality indications.


I'm not even sure if this table is legit but I came up with this since I couldn't understand shit from chapter 4  when I first started. Well at least it helped me pass my exam??? Hahaha. You see there are tons of terminology for GI in foreign labels and it was so confusing for me! I decided to make memorising easier since I already had a ton of other stuff to remember, by generating this table of Quality Indications.

I added a few definitions below and the rest can be found in the textbook, which you already should know through all the notes you made. These definitions are quite important since I got them from all the MCQs I did.

Also, since I generated this table entirely on my own, I can't be sure if there's any mistake.


Refer to the WORKBOOK for a touch up after every mindmap for each chapter. It's a good reference for summary (which I missed out on) and I wish I'd done this earlier. 1 week before the exam, or rather 3 days before, attempt sample MCQs papers which I have included in this post. You can find more of it from your workbook. Attempt all of it repeatedly (especially those from your workbook) until you are able to score full or nearly full marks. Take online quizzes too on your free time.



And here my dear friends, is the amateur guide to passing your WSET Level 2. I hope it helps. Now everyone can go pass your Level 2 exam! All the best with your revisions and good luck!