It’s hard to believe that my WSET Diploma D2 exam is done!
For those of you following along, I’ve been studying for the final level of the WSET program with the Napa Valley Wine Academy. The Diploma consists of 6 units that takes around 2 years to complete.
D2 focuses on Wine Business. The course takes you through all of the factors that contribute to the price of wine. This includes costs in the vineyard, the winery and through the supply chain, types of businesses creating wine and getting wine to the point of sale.
From there, we dive deep into the different sectors of hospitality, retail and other market types. I really enjoyed learning about the differences in retail and how supermarkets, deep discounters and specialist wine retailers curate the wines they provide depending on the consumer they are trying to reach.
From there, the course dives into the marketing of wine. Since this is my day job, I was especially interested in learning more about this topic as it relates to wine. SWOT analysis is a large emphasis of this section of the book. Strength, Weakness, Opportunity & Threat make up this acronym and refer to how a company can evaluate internal and external threats to their goals.
Finally, we move to discuss different marketing strategies that can range anywhere from all different kinds of advertising, events, social media (oh, hello ;)) promotional materials and more.
I really enjoyed this unit of the Diploma program and felt that Napa Valley Wine Academy’s online courses and modules along with their mock exams helped me feel fully prepared for this exam. So much of this program is not only about showing the WSET you understand the material, but being able to understand what exactly they are asking in each question and how to properly respond. This is where the mock exams and help of the faculty at NVWA really come into play and helped me feel fully prepared.
In this Diploma, you must take D1 and D2 in order, but after that, you are able to hop around and take the rest of the units in any order you like. I plan on skipping around and will be signing up for D5 Fortified Wines this spring! This will be my first exam of the Diploma that consists of a written exam and blind tasting. I am both nervous and excited to continue this journey with the WSET and Napa Valley Wine Academy!
Grab a discount on your next WSET course with Napa Valley Wine Academy by clicking here or using the code h2kqstrohwset at checkout.
