Congratulations to Joanne Hobday for passing the Champagne Master Level exam with highest honors!
About Joanne:
My parents always let me have a small glass of wine with Sunday lunch! Later in life I became fascinated by the myriad of bottles in my local wine warehouse, where I’d pick a wine based on the label. Slowly I started to work out what I liked and disliked and then my husband suggested a holiday in Bordeaux. We spent two days at the Ecole du Vin where I truly caught the “wine bug”! I love to drink champagne and about 17 years ago I saw an advert on the Eurotunnel for the Champagne Region, saying it was “closer than you think”. We made our first visit and have visited at least once a year since!
About three years ago I decided to turn my passion into a qualification and started to study the WSET with a wine merchant in London who also runs courses and tasting events. After Level 3 I looked around at what do do next and the Champagne Master Level seemed like a natural progression! I’m thrilled that I’ve been able to focus on my favourite region.
I’m not sure what to do next. For now I’m keen to join WSG as a member and just dip in and out of the events that capture my interest. Although with an A Level in Geography I'm actually quite keen on the new Soil Series that’s just started.
With travel restrictions easing I can’t wait to visit Champagne again; I’ve really missed it. I hope that now I have the Master Level it will add another dimension to my travels. When I started studying it was never my intention to share my knowledge with other wine enthusiasts, but in the past 18 months I’ve been asked to run several Wine Tasting events via Zoom for my colleagues, so perhaps Wine Educator is a future possibility.
