“Wine brightens the life and thinking of anyone”

— Thomas Jefferson

Fine Vintage, Ltd. is offering WSET’s advanced certification course in Chicago next Spring. We have restructured the course into four intensive days followed by a study period of several weeks before taking the exam. Over two weekends, more than 70 wines to prepare you for the rigorous WSET Level 3 exam. Though not required as a prerequisite I highly recommend have your WSET Level 2 certification (or have just taken the Level 2 course, even if you don’t yet have your results) so you have a thorough grounding in WSET’s important Structured Approach to Tasting.

This is a serious course, but it’s also an immensely rewarding course. We cover a broad range of material and train you in important skills of deductive reasoning to “connect the dots” about wine production and wine style.

The course begins Saturday, March 28 and Sunday March 29, then continues two weeks later, concluding on April 11 and 12, 2026. The final exam will be scheduled for several weeks later. This exam does include a blind tasting of two wines and everyone is very worried about this because Levels 1 and 2 don’t have a tasting exam. In fact, after tasting 70 wines with me in class you will have your tasting skills at a very high level. Where you really want the coaching and intensive study is for the four “short answer” questions that make up more than half the total exam score and this is an area of great focus for Fine Vintage. We give you plenty of homework to study and extensive coaching in class to have you in the best position possible to do well on the exam.

For a further description of what Level 3 entails, please check my course description page here.

If you want to take Level 3 I encourage you to register well in advance - as soon as you register, you’ll receive online versions of the text, workbook and the Level 3 SAT. You definitely want to have a chance to read these through a couple of times before the first class session - there’s a lot of wine here! To register for Level 3 in Chicago in March 2026, simply click the button below to go straight to the Fine Vintage, Ltd website’s Chicago course page. Remember the earlier you register the better for your preparedness. I look forward to seeing you in class!!