Congratulations to Maxime Dubois, FWS, for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Maxime:
My passion for wine came quite late. Although French, I came from the part of the country dominated by apples, home of Calvados and (perhaps) the best cider in the World: Normandy. As I developed a passion for the restaurant industry and decided to study restaurant management, I discovered this whole universe that wine had to offer to me! A never-ending source of discoveries and pleasure!
In 2017, I decided to eventually leave the restaurant industry and co-create a project called Food Vinebrations. It took me to 15 countries around the World to meet food and wine producers and sometimes work with them to get a more hands-on knowledge. Of all places, I fell in love with Vietnam where I came back in early 2019 to join the team of Celliers d’Asie & Red Apron as Marketing Manager & Wine Educator.
I truly discovered wine and its World of knowledge while studying restaurant management at Ecole Ferrandi in Paris. Back then, we were solely focusing on French wines, with brief mentions of International iconic appellations like Chianti or Rioja. After graduating, I moved back to Ireland where I had worked before, to manage a newly opened Wine Bar & Restaurant called the Dublin Wine Rooms. Upon arrival, I realized that, if French wines were important, they weren’t exclusive. To develop my knowledge of other wine producing countries, I have passed the Introductory & Certified levels of the Court of Master Sommeliers.
In 2019, I have passed my WSET Level 3 with Distinction (I am now a WSET Educator in Vietnam & soon FWS Instructor). As I was discovering more and more areas of the Wine World, I realized that if a good overall knowledge was important, a precise and detailed knowledge of Historical leading producers was vital. That’s when I enrolled for the FWS, and it truly delivered beyond my expectations!
The FWS is a very precise and exhaustive program, providing all the tools to apprehend the wines of France and their diversity. It’s been a great adventure to prepare for it, and I really enjoyed both the manual and the online resources!
One thing though, studying for FWS really made me want to study IWS & SWS too! While most programs focus on overall knowledge of the whole wine World, it’s great to find a program that gives very specific details and in-depth knowledge.
