Congratulations to Jade Yu Han, FWS, for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Jade:
My journey into wine started when I stumbled into the wine collection room at Sotheby’s auction house while I was studying at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York Summer 2015. Deeply fascinated by the beautifully organized wine shelves and seemingly esoteric wine labels, I was intrigued and felt an urge to learn more about this art in flavor and aroma, a different sensory experience from visual arts that I was more familiar with.
So I enrolled in WSET program knowing that appreciation for wine is no different from art, acquiring systematic knowledge and exposure to diverse portfolio would enhance the experience in folds. After passing WSET Level 2 and 3, as my passion for wine grew, I enrolled in the French Wine Scholar program, wishing to refine my understanding of this complex region that epitomizes old world wine style.
To me, tasting a wine is like reading a book or travel without stepping out of the door, from the glass we get to experience a different part of the world miles away. Wine learning programs like French Wine Scholar enable me to maximize the joy I get from that glass. It’s no longer just grape juice, you get to ponder over the haunting history, the unique terroir, what occurred in that specific vintage and why one variety thrived on that soil/slope or why a chosen fermentation method really makes it sparkle. You unleash one of a kind memory sealed in each bottle. With wine education, the compounded joy makes every seemingly ordinary day’s dinner become extraordinary.
The weekly French Wine Scholar class was my get away night. The quality and depth of the program is unmatched, it breaks down the complex French wine regions and highlights the nuances between various terroirs and grape varieties, which helped me immensely in becoming a more confident player in the deductive blind tasting game. Enjoying the wealth of knowledge presented in the FWS program, I plan to continue my journey by enrolling in Italian Wine Scholar soon and eventually pursue WSET diploma.
