Congratulations to David March, from Australia, for being the 2015 WORLD TOP EXAM SCORER for the BORDEAUX MASTER-LEVEL PROGRAM.
About David March:
''After 30 years as a teacher and Adult Education Manager in the UK (with Honours Degree from London University), a year’s job exchange to Australia ignited my passion for wine. I signed up for wine courses and passed the WSET Higher Certificate and Level 4 Diploma and passed the first year of the Master of Wine course in the UK.
Moving to Cape Town in 2009, I became a Cape Wine Master in 2012; my dissertation looked at ‘Wine Investment in South Africa’. I write for www.wine.co.za and have finished a guide to the wines of Stellenbosch. I am a judge for the Veritas Awards, the Shiraz SA Awards and the Gold and Vitis Wine Awards. I also edit the newsletter of the Institute of Cape Wine Masters as well as lecturing and assessing Cape Wine Academy students at Certificate and Diploma level, which I really enjoy.
I love travelling, and have spent all my holidays in wine regions, including New Zealand, California, Spain, Italy, Chile, Austria and all of France, as well as four consecutive summers in Germany’s Mosel region.
I plan to enroll in other certification programmes as I believe it is important to keep your wine knowledge up-to-date and to never stop learning.
The Master Level programme helped me understand the region’s history as a foundation for the constant changes occurring today. The ML programme offers theory but also practical insights by industry leaders – and it is kept current.
I found the ML course not only complemented my previous wine courses, but offered new – and more than that – correct information which I found other courses had got wrong!
It has given me the confidence – and appetite to keep learning about wine and has proved that the Guild’s distance learning ( and exam ) method works well.
In a ‘young’ wine environment like South Africa’s having expertise in a classic wine region of the world helps me, especially as a wine judge, to hold SA wines against a world standard.
It also adds some perspective and weight to my ability in the judgements I make in the domestic market.''
