{"id":8636,"date":"2021-02-02T10:27:29","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T10:27:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/?p=8636"},"modified":"2022-03-29T15:26:16","modified_gmt":"2022-03-29T14:26:16","slug":"the-life-of-an-mw-student-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/the-life-of-an-mw-student-four\/","title":{"rendered":"The Life of an MW Student &#8211; Four"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"l-section wpb_row height_medium\"><div class=\"l-section-h i-cf\"><div class=\"g-cols vc_row via_flex valign_top type_default stacking_default\"><div class=\"vc_col-sm-12 wpb_column vc_column_container\"><div class=\"vc_column-inner\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><time class=\"w-post-elm post_date entry-date published\" datetime=\"2021-02-02T10:27:29+00:00\" title=\"2 February 2021 at 10:27:29 Europe\/London\" itemprop=\"datePublished\">5 years ago<\/time><div class=\"w-separator size_small\"><\/div><div class=\"wpb_text_column\"><div class=\"wpb_wrapper\"><div class=\"c12 breadcrumb\">\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 30px; letter-spacing: 0em; text-transform: uppercase;\">The Life of an MW Student &#8211; FOUR<\/span><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After submitting my application to the Institute of Masters of Wine in June, I spent the whole summer trying not to think about it and finally bursting into tears in a supermarket in Tuscany when I got the acceptance letter.<\/p>\n<p>The first experience I had of a Master of Wine practical exam paper was at the Institute&#8217;s headquarters in Vauxhall. Twenty of us shuffled into a room and sat expectantly, waiting for the Master of Wine running the session to give us some instructions. We were each to collect twelve glasses, a spittoon and a water glass. A timer was displayed on the screen at the front of the room. Surely we weren&#8217;t expected to sit an exam now, I thought!?<\/p>\n<p>It turned out that we were. I had imagined that this first day at the Institute would involve us being taught how to taste wine. Well, it turns out that MW students are expected to already be quite good at that! Quickly pulling myself together and pouring my wines, I got started. My identifications, to my great relief, were actually not that bad. I correctly identified four Sauvignon Blancs, putting them each in the correct region (New Zealand, the Loire, Bordeaux and Napa). I managed &#8211; to my own astonishment &#8211; to pick out a white Ch\u00e2teauneuf du Pape. Of course I made mistakes, and plenty of them, but this was a huge boost in confidence.<\/p>\n<p>During these first few weeks I was also given my first assignment. An essay on the various nutrients required by the grapevine, to be done under exam conditions. I found myself digging out a periodic table for the first time in more than a decade, and studying hard. Coming from an arts background, the detailed knowledge of chemistry and biology demanded by the MW course is still one of the most challenging things for me.<\/p>\n<p>At the point of writing this, eighteen months into the course, I am well and truly used to public criticism. As such, I don&#8217;t mind admitting that my first attempt at an MW essay was a total failure. This, at the time, was a nasty shock. I was used to doing well academically, and this absolute disaster of an essay threw into relief the amount of work I would need to put in to get up to standard.<\/p>\n<p>My first month on the MW course was marked by extreme highs and lows. This trend would continue over the next eighteen months, and even now shows no sign of relenting &#8211; although I hope to end on the biggest high of all when I finally manage to pass!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><div class=\"w-separator size_small\"><\/div><div class=\"w-post-elm post_author vcard author color_link_inherit with_ava avapos_top\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/author\/owcemily\/\" class=\"fn\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\"><div class=\"post-author-ava\" style=\"font-size:96px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"96\" height=\"96\" src=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-96x96.jpg\" class=\"avatar avatar-96 photo\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-96x96.jpg 96w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-350x350.jpg 350w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-600x600.jpg 600w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-400x400.jpg 400w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-24x24.jpg 24w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-48x48.jpg 48w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n.jpg 640w, https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/116377708_608815716686001_1898708497719331632_n-100x100.jpg 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 96px) 100vw, 96px\" \/><\/div><\/a><div class=\"post-author-meta\"><a href=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/author\/owcemily\/\" class=\"post-author-name fn\">Emily Silva<\/a><div class=\"post-author-info\">Emily is Head of Retail and Marketing at The Oxford Wine Company. She is also a stage two student on the Master of Wine Programme.<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"5 years ago The Life of an MW Student &#8211; FOUR After submitting my application to the Institute of Masters of Wine in June, I spent the whole summer trying...","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[202,215,216,217,213],"class_list":["post-8636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oxford_wine_blog","tag-emilysilva","tag-mwstudent","tag-mwstudy","tag-wineeducation","tag-winestudy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Life of an MW Student - Four - Oxford Wine Company<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/the-life-of-an-mw-student-four\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Life of an MW Student - Four - Oxford Wine Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/the-life-of-an-mw-student-four\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Oxford Wine Company\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/theoxfordwinecompany\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-02-02T10:27:29+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-03-29T14:26:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Emily Silva\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@TheOxfordWineCo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@TheOxfordWineCo\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Emily Silva\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/the-life-of-an-mw-student-four\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/the-life-of-an-mw-student-four\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Emily Silva\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/oxfordwine.co.uk\/owc\/#\/schema\/person\/0218c55a34881e04418f0ddf572efa32\"},\"headline\":\"The Life of an MW Student &#8211; 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