On the Road to the WSET Diploma

One of my favourite poems is Ithaka by C.P. Cavafy. I will be citing the translation by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard.

Ithaka
By C.P. Cavafy

As you set out for Ithaka
hope your road is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians, Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope your road is a long one.
May there be many summer mornings when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you enter harbors you’re seeing for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to learn and go on learning from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you’re destined for.
But don’t hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you’re old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you’ve gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you wouldn’t have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you’ll have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.

This is a poem I have brought to mind on multiple occasions in my life, and most certainly many times, while I was studying for the Diploma. It turned out, that for some of the wrong reasons, my Diploma journey was in effect a long one. I started in October 2019 and received my last exam results end of July 2023. Covid blew me away. The angst, the people around me, the deaths, the contradicting information, the pressure.

I work full time as a psychiatrist/psychotherapist, so I chose to do the online version, because it allowed me more liberty to juggle my time. In retrospect, I think if I were to start over, I might have chosen the classroom version. Particularly, for the tasting element. I felt I needed more coaching on that part. If one works in the wine business, and one is constantly tasting wines, that might not be as important.

When I started my Diploma journey, I was full of excitement. I had put it off for a couple of years for various reasons, and when signing up for it eventually materialised, I felt absolutely committed. I would wake up at 5:30am every morning to get my studying done before leaving for work. I completed all my tasks and learning materials with great diligence, handed in papers, assignments, and mock exams, posted comments and queries on other student’s work, and bought extra reading material. Studying had become the central theme of my life. I became obsessed with Geography, which has never been my strength, rivers, lakes, oceans, winds, mountains, soils, and what have you, seized me. But, the Laistrygonians, Cyclops and wild Poseidon entered my soul in March 2020, and I yielded to them. I lost my interest, I lost my love, I lost my fervour, I lost me.

C’mon. I’m a medical doctor. I have studied for years. Of course, I did my studying. But, now it had turned into more of a task, an obligation; the enthusiasm was lost. I plodded along like trying to walk in clay. The Diploma became a project I had undertaken, and the passion evaporated.

By now you are probably wondering why I seem so particular about love and passion when studying for the Diploma. There are just so many things to learn, and so many branches to explore, without the devotion and delight it becomes insupportable. One needs devotion, perseverance and enthusiasm to pull through. I found it both challenging and trying. I performed best when I was in love with it. That was in the first six months and towards the end when I recovered my dream.

Is the Diploma worth it? Why go for it, if you already have a level 3 WSET? It’s so expensive and needs so much effort. Well, apart from the immense amount of information that is added to level 3, what really changes is your mindset. Up to level 3, you are mainly memorising information, whereas in level 4 you are explaining why the information matters and how. This puts you on a pedestal when compared to the level 3. One obviously cannot remember all the details covered in the reading materials and in the sources, but who cares? That is never a problem. You can always go back and look the details up. Reasoning is not something you can look up. You need to learn how to do it effectively. Reasoning makes all the difference, and I adore reasoning and debating. Oh, dear, I forgot debating. Also crucial to the Diploma.

Has it been useful to me? Hmm, I have been writing about wine for the last seven years. I somehow feel that post Diploma there is more essence to my writing. When I look at vineyards, locations, soils, or varieties, or talk to producers, having a good grasp on wine production, the wine business, the peculiarities of varieties and regions, and changing trends, gives me a different perspective. Wine is never just wine. It encloses all the decisions a winemaker has made right from the very first moment a vineyard was planted, to the management he/she has chosen for the vines and grapes, for wine production, for bottling and labelling, and for marketing the end product. All of these choices make one wine so different from the other, even from vineyards that are standing right next to each other, planted with the same varieties, and subject to the same natural phenomena and the same hazards. Then again, choices are always made according to character and experience. Winemakers’ characters always interest me. Psychiatry taught me about personality, and the Diploma connected personality to wine.

My WSET Diploma journey was passionate, eventful, hard work, time consuming, thrilling, a thriller at times, but most certainly valuable. If I refer to my favourite poem again, I unquestionably feel wealthier from all I have gained during its course. An experience I wouldn’t have missed for anything, and, although I didn’t enjoy the ride as much as I would’ve liked, maybe the particular circumstances proved to me how much I wanted this.