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February 2023

Our 2021-2022 WSET Level 4 Diploma Graduation party, held to celebrate the success of the latest group of students, enjoyed the company of Jancis Robinson MW who came along as a surprise guest.
Congratulations to (left to right) Melissa, Hannah, Ina, Tom, Valentina, Marcus, Chris and Michael. 

 

February 2023
The World Gin Awards are judged in London and this year's competition attracted over 3000 entries across a number of categories such as Best Navy Gin, Best Old Tim Gin. Ben Leggett, our WSET Spirits tutor won the Best London Dry category - in our opinion the best style of gin -  with his Roots Marlborough Dry Gin. The judges described it as " Good classic gin aroma with some fresh pine notes on the aroma and nice cardamon, nutmeg, cinnamon and coriander " 

We are thrilled to announce that Sophie passed the third part of the MW examination and is now a Master of Wine.  There are 418 MWs globally, 149 women and 269 men living or working in 32 countries. Since the first exam in 1953, only 493 people have passed the examination and become an MW.

I'm writing this whilst on holiday in Queenstown. It is POURING with rain and the wind is howling across Lake Wakatipu. Happy Summer 2021!!

It was time to relaunch the website and our new look, The Wine School, www.nzsws.co.nz is now up and running. If you'd like to book a course with us, you will need to create a new account to do so. If you have any problems with this, then please don't hesitate to get in touch. 

Back on 1st January, when most of us were still knee-deep celebrating (or recovering from) the New Year, no-one could have predicted how the year would develop. Barely four months later we’ve found ourselves isolated in our own lockdown world. These are strange and worrying times.

At NZSWS the spectre of Covid19 meant we had to decide how to operate during Level 4 and Level 3. We noted that some APPs quickly moved to online teaching. However when I discussed this with Josh and Ronald we all felt this was not optimal and that learning in a classroom remained the way to go. 

Congratulations to our Wellington based tutor Josh who was chosen to be one of the twelve Family XII 2019 tutorial participants this year. Places on the tutorial are extremely sought-after and, after two very rewarding days tasting some of the world’s greatest wines, Josh was awarded the ‘Institute of Masters of Wine Prize’.