I just completed my WSET Level 1 Award in Sake course and exam. Thoughts??

WOW. Just, wow. I was approaching this course in much the same fashion (I imagine) as many of my wine students who know only the tiniest bit about the subject and are eager to learn more.

And did I? (Learn more, that is) YES!!! I now feel 100% confident in being handed a sake list at a restaurant and not only understanding the words used to describe the expected flavours of each sake, but also the food pairing potential of each sake.

As a bonus, I also learned a bunch of kanji — that is, Japanese characters akin to our Latin alphabet. Not only did I learn these, but I was thoroughly impressed at how the online course program had thought through ways to remember the kanji based on their visual interpretations.

Did I actually taste any sakes during this course? Hmmm …. sort of? I did have a few sips here and there of some sakes, but by no means did I go out of my way to follow the tasting curriculum.

If I was completely new to assessing alcoholic beverages, this probably would have been a detriment to my education, but because I have extensive experience in assessing wines and spirits using the SAT, I could easily “imagine” what each sake would taste like.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t recommend this ‘no tasting’ path if you aren’t an experienced taster.

Bottom line: this was my first experience as a student instead of instructor in a few years, and boy did it teach me a lot about going back to basics. This was invaluable, and I hope that the experience will make me a better instructor going forward.

And also… I learned enough in this Level 1 course to realize that I don’t really like sake all that much… not that I totally dislike it, but at least to know that I probably won’t ever want to dive deeper into Level 2 or 3 anytime soon.

At least I tried. And here’s hoping better luck with my next suitor… the Spanish Wine Scholar!