The WSET Level 3 tasting grid, and how to pass Level 3

My WSET Level 3 certificate is dated February 2013. Back then the course was called the Level 3 Advanced Certificate in Wines and Spirits; today it is the Level 3 Award in Wines. I passed with Merit, and the part that made the difference was the tasting grid.

The Level 3 exam in 2026

• Theory: a closed-book paper with 50 multiple-choice questions and 4 short-answer questions, in 2 hours.
• Tasting: two still wines, tasted blind, described with the tasting grid, in 30 minutes.
• To pass: at least 55% on each section of the theory paper, and 55% across the two wines in the tasting.
• Grades: Pass from 55%, Merit from 65%, Distinction from 80%, with no paper below 65% for a Distinction.

Check the latest details on WSET's Level 3 page before you book.

What the tasting grid is

WSET calls it the Systematic Approach to Tasting, or SAT. It is a fixed order of questions you answer for every wine, with a fixed set of words for the answers. In the exam, marks go to using those words correctly. WSET publishes the Level 3 grid for free: download the official SAT from WSET and keep it next to every glass you taste.

Here is how I walk through it, in my own words.

1. Appearance

• Clarity: clear or hazy. Haze can be a fault.
• Intensity: how deep the colour is, from pale to deep.
• Colour: for whites, from lemon to gold to amber; for rosés, from pink to salmon to orange; for reds, from purple to ruby to garnet to tawny. Colour moves along that scale with age.

2. Nose

• Condition: clean, or faulty (cork taint, for example).
• Intensity: from light to pronounced.
• Aroma characteristics: sort what you smell into three families. Primary comes from the grape and the fermentation: fruit, flowers, herbs. Secondary comes from winemaking: yeast and lees (bread, biscuit), malolactic (butter, cream), oak (vanilla, toast, smoke). Tertiary comes from ageing: dried fruit, leather, earth, honey, nuts.
• Development: youthful, developing, fully developed, or tired and past its best.

3. Palate

• Structure: sweetness, acidity, tannin (for reds), alcohol and body, each on its own scale from low to high.
• Mousse: for sparkling wines, how the bubbles feel, from delicate to aggressive.
• Flavour: its intensity, and its characteristics, in the same three families as the nose.
• Finish: how long the flavours stay after you swallow or spit, from short to long.

4. Conclusions

• Quality: faulty, poor, acceptable, good, very good or outstanding.
• Why: justify the quality with balance, length, intensity and complexity. Students remember them as BLIC. This is where Merit and Distinction marks are won.
• Readiness for drinking: too young; can drink now but has potential for ageing; drink now, not suitable for ageing; or too old.

How to score points in the tasting

• Use the grid's words, not your own. “Pronounced” scores; “really strong” doesn't.
• Give several aromas per family. One fruit is thin; three fruits plus an oak note and a sign of age shows you looked.
• Never skip BLIC. A quality call without its reasons loses easy marks.
• Split the time: about 15 minutes per wine, and leave a minute to check you filled every line.
• Practise on classics side by side: Chablis next to an oaked Chardonnay, Sancerre next to Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, Bordeaux next to Burgundy.

How to pass the theory

• Explain the why. The short-answer questions reward cause and effect: this climate, so this grape ripens like this, so the wine tastes like this.
• Learn regions in pairs. Compare a cool and a warm example of the same grape; the contrast is often the question.
• Write answers by hand, against the clock. Four short answers in the time left after 50 multiple-choice questions is a real skill.
• Quiz yourself every day. Ten minutes of questions beats an hour of rereading.

For daily questions, SOMM DIGI AI has 3,000+ exam-prep questions and makes quizzes on any region you choose, free to start. My Sommelier Prep Book is 149 pages of mixed questions across regions, grapes, styles and winemaking.

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