Congratulations to Monica Gural, FWS, for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Monica:
I am a passionate wine enthusiast! I dabble in many different areas of the wine world as a hobby. I work for a national wine tasting company and do tastings in local stores. I’ve been fortunate to volunteer with a company assisting in bringing new imports to North America. I also work at a local New Jersey winery. I really enjoy the Instagram wine community as well and have found some wonderful like-minded friends there. As a way to further support my wine certification pursuits, I started a wine-themed game show named Wineopardy. I’m looking forward to continuing in the wine world and can’t wait to see where it takes me next!
I received my bartending license in 2012. I passed the Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory Exam in March 2018. I passed WSET Level 2 with distinction in July 2018 and Level 3 with distinction in December 2020. I passed the Napa Valley Wine Academy’s Côte du Rhone course and Capstone California’s California Wine Certification in September 2021. I also passed the MOOC classic level in January 2021. Additionally, I have taken a dozen plus classes from Wine for Normal People. The FWS experienced was greatly enhanced by these previous courses, especially WFNP’s classes. I felt like I had a better handle on the basics due to those classes and my WSET studies.
My plan is to take the MOOC premium version and then likely the Certified Specialist in Wine. I think the FWS will have greatly prepared me for both of these courses. I do anticipate taking one of the WSG master classes as well.
Already, having the FWS certification has assisted me in working with an organization promoting the import of French wines to the US. Volunteering for them has been a great opportunity to keep my knowledge fresh. Not working in the industry every day, there is the concern about a brain dump on exam day and not being able to retain the information you spent so much effort learning. Volunteering with this organization is one way to help keep the information fresh. Additionally, I occasionally do wine tasting (often French) in local stores. I always try to use my FWS knowledge to better educate tasters to make better informed wine purchasing decisions. Beyond educating others, I am looking forward to making more intelligent wine buying choices for myself and those around me in order to expose them to the great values and experiences that can be had in French wine.
