Nova Cadamatre

Life After the MW Exam: Hindsight’s Look at My Past 4 Years

Three weeks ago I was one of the 98 students to attempt to pass the rigorous Master of Wine exam. Full details of the exam questions are posted here.  However unlike the majority of other students (in Napa at least), I was taking the full exam for what will be my last time.  I originally ...

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The 2012 Master of Wine Napa Seminar: Year 4 of my pursuit of the MW.

In just two days time close to 70 MW students will converge on Yountville, CA all with the same goal of one day becoming a Master of Wine.  This will be my fourth seminar and my last as a full program student.  As this is my 3rd shot at the exam this year there are ...

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Harvest 2011 – Week 8 – Harvest Halfway and MW preparations

At this point we’re halfway through the harvest season.  In another 8 weeks it will all be wrapped up.  Wine will be tucked away in barrels or tanks either going through ML, extended maceration, and sur lee aging.  Between now and then is the most complex time during the harvest.  This is when the bulk ...

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FAIL: The Word Everyone Hates to See on MW Exam Results

As you probably assumed from the title of this post, I have once again failed the MW exam.  This was my second attempt and the IMW follows the rules of baseball in the three strikes, you’re out philosophy.  I have one more try before I’m benched. I decided to blog about this failure while it was still fresh ...

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The Master of Wine Exam…A Two Week Retrospective

Two weeks ago at this point I had finished the second day of the four day long MW exam.  Now after that time has passed, I’ve had time to chew over my answers in my head, wake up in the middle of the night remembering some small detail that I can’t remember if I mentioned, ...

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At the End of the Day the Greatest Wine is Red… Or is it?

In the last few weeks running down to the MW exam I’m still slowly working my way through the last layer of questions in my basket however I can see the bottom now so that’s a good sign.  I’m also amazed I’ve gotten through so many questions!  This one came up on my trip last ...

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Crazy Times: Notes on Blogging, Vintage 2011, Winemaking, and the MW exam…

To my returning readers, my apologies that I have been unable to get a post up for the last two weeks but my life has been insane between full-time winemaking, an on-going house renovation project, a 50 mile bike ride for Diabetes research and my MW studies.  To my new readers…Welcome to the Personalities of ...

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An Energizing Couple of Weeks!

While I’m not doing so well in my New Year’s Resolution to write a blog post every week, I have had a busy January. I wanted to share a bit of what I’ve been up to the last few weeks. Post highlights a trip to London, the first bottling of Emma Pearl and the 2011 North American MW Seminar.

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Ready for the MW…Again.

Here it is. The evening prior to the start of the Master of Wine Residential Seminar for MW students and I find myself thinking about the week that I’m getting ready for. This also brings into stark realization that the MW exam itself is only 4 months and 1 week away (but who’s counting). I find myself in the same mentality that I would be in during the middle of a very long run.

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How many essays are too many???

Back in October of 2009 I decided that a good way to study would be to write essays (or at least good outlines) for every exam question asked on the theory paper for the last 10 years. The logic being that there was very little chance that the majority of the MW theory exam would be made up of questions from different topics than have been covered over that time span and I would have prepared at least one or more ways to answer them by the time I sat the exam.

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