“Isn’t that the shit you use for cooking?”
-Hubs on Sherry (did I mention he’s a beer guy?)
As if there weren’t already enough post-nominals in the wine world (WSET, CMS, FWS, etc.), last week I learned about one more: Certified Sherry Wine Specialist – CSWS.
The CSWS course is a 2.5 hour seminar sponsored by The House of Lustau – one of the most revered Sherry producers in the world. The course has recently been making industry rounds in California from the Napa Valley Wine Academy to Neptune Wine School (where I’ll be taking my upcoming WSET Diploma classes!).
There’s quite a lot of information covered in this brief 150 minutes including the history of Sherry, its grapes and growing environment, and the famous (and fascinating) solera system shown below.
In addition to a broad overview, class participants taste 6 different styles of Sherry – 2 Finos, a Manzanilla, an Amontillado, an Oloroso and a Pedro Ximénez. This alone was worth the price of admission in my mind (a very reasonable $40). It’s one thing to read about how Manzanilla Sherry has a briny/salty edge to it or that Pedro Ximénez is SO lusciously sweet, often tasting of dried fruit and coffee. For me, the knowledge really sinks in when I can smell and taste these things for myself. I’m no longer just memorizing facts, I’m having my own experiences – which are a helluva lot easier to recall if I need to for an exam! Speaking of which…..the 2 hour seminar concludes with a 28 question exam (most of it multiple choice) and those achieving a score of 20 or higher will receive a CSWS certification.
Although it’s advertised as an intermediate level course – I wouldn’t let this scare off any wine newbies out there. Compared to some of the other wine classes I’ve attended, I found the CSWS to be completely welcoming (read: nonthreatening). Nobody is put on the spot unless you want to be. 🙂 Our seminar was led by Lucas Payà who, along with being incredibly knowledgeable and patient with questions, also had a gorgeous accent that I could listen to all day.
I’d highly recommend this seminar to anyone interested in learning more about Sherry – no matter what your current wine knowledge level. And for those other wine bloggers out there – the CSWS course is going to be offered at The Wine Bloggers Conference in October (and is a total steal at $15!)
Here’s my outline on Sherry which will provide you with a great overview, but just isn’t the same as tasting an amazing Pedro Ximénez!!
Outwines 
Thank you. I’m taking the CSWS in a few weeks and can’t find any real user experiences with the exam. I don’t know how serious I need to take studying the guide.
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How was the exam? I’m thinking of taking the course.
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I think it was fair. I didn’t know what to expect so I studied hard… I read and wrote notes etc… then took the classes. I remember telling my wife that I didn’t know if I was taking it too serious or not. You don’t get to know your score but I “Passed with highest honors” . That’s what I know. For some backstory, I’m not from the wine world nor do I intend to make a career of it. I’m going down the distilling path and wanted to know more about Sherry and why different sherry barrels influenced whisky the way they do. As such, I didn’t want to take the exam a second time since it was really a tangent for me. Thus I studied to not fail it.
Lucas covers about 40% of the material in the lectures so you can’t rely solely upon them. Use the lectures and forum to ask questions and clarify things. Also it helps to speak some Spanish as a lot of the test terms are Spanish words – Rocio and Sacas makes more sense if you already know what those words mean. 🙂 He recommended we know any of the Spanish terms as well as a full understanding of how soleras and criaderas work and types of soil.There were several questions on there which I wasn’t sure what to do with. I won’t give the questions here but they required an extra level of understanding and maybe that is what they were for. I’ll give you an example not related to sherry - in American Whisky a lot of brands are sourced from MGP, the giant factory left over from Seagrams. MGP doesn’t generally make whisky with it’s name on it but if you buy a bottle of Redemption Rye it’s MGP, if you buy a bottle of Bulleit it’s MGP, if you buy Dickle it’s MGP etc.. So what if there was a question like “Can you buy MGP whisky in the supermarkets in America?” … What do you do? Technically you can buy whisky that was made by MGP but you can’t buy a bottle that says MGP. I chose to go with the most accurate truth on those types of questions. I can’t say if that was the right path as I don’t know my score, only “Passed with highest honors”. As a long time instructor I see questions like that as being designed to test if you *really* know what you’re talking about as opposed to just remembering facts. I don’t have advice but choosing the most true answer seemed to work in my case. If I were you I’d buy all of the wines ahead of time or even the same types of Sherry from another supplier and spend time to get to know them. If you can tell an Amontillado from a Palo Cortado and you know why they’re different then you’re probably in good shape. The other thing is the test focuses a lot more on food pairing than I was probably prepared for. Again, get to know the wines.I studied a lot of things to levels far beyond what was required because they interested me such as the Solera and Criadera system and didn’t really get to use that knowledge. It was interesting to me as it was highly technical and also used in Brandy and Rum production. The other piece of advice I have is ask Lucas in the forum or during one of the classes about the new regulations for Sherry. Laws have been passed and he will tell you if you need to worry about them or not. He told us to follow the Sherry Study Guide.
Overall I think it’s worth the $100 plus the cost of the wines… I don’t live in a country where I can buy the wines so I had to have them shipped to the states and I went to get them. For the class they do need to be the exact wines as there are subtle differences between a few.
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Thank you so very much for your detailed and thoughtful reply. It means a lot. All the best, and congrats on passing with highest honors!
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No problem, I hope it was useful.
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