Congratulations to Sabina ping YANG, FWS for passing the French Wine Scholar exam with highest honors with Tasting Annex in Shenzhen, China!
About Sabina:
"I have been working in wine industry for 8 years, and yes, I’m a wine professional. And absolutely, I’m a wine enthusiast. I would not be able to stay focused in wine industry since I was a senior student at university 8 years ago if I do not have enthusiasm and passion for wine itself.
I’m lucky that I used to work for giant wine importing companies in Mainland China which carry over 1000 wines imported from all over the world. This means, I’ve got so much professional knowledge to learn, and luckily, I’ve got as many opportunities to learn as well. When I travelled to many different cities, big or small, organizing wine events, I have always been surprised to find that more and more people are interested in wine, they ask questions, they make comparisons (between wine and traditional Chinese drinks), they are curious and eager to learn…how can I respond to them if I’m not professional enough?
I believe it’s this curiosity and eagerness to learn motivated me. It makes me happy to show people a real and fascinating world of wine! I have followed and passed WSET Diploma course last year and now a certified DipWSET. I do think FWS and WSET make very good complementing partners. It may not be very appropriate but from my opinion, WSET is like science, it builds up the basic structure of a systematic wine study; FWS is like arts, it gives more readable details and fantastic stories.
There are 3 things I think FWS does a superior job than other wine certificates:
1. The width and depth of knowledge coverage At FWS class you will have the chance to know Jura and Savoie (What? Never heard of before?). I took my FWS course at TastingAnnex Shenzhen, I was so surprised when they got us a bottle of Vin Jaune in unique 620ml bottles called “Clavelins”. 6 years and 3 months maturation in oak casks makes this wine “Sherried”, I don’t like the taste honestly, but I like this wine, it’s Special!
2. Whole picture of history of each region and full of stories We love story. Story is the most practical tool for us to communicate with each other. As a Wine Educator, I found those stories very useful for me to get students’ attention and arouse their interest.
3. Illustrated traditional food and wine pairing, wines with local cuisine An old friend says “A bottle of Aussie wine helps to take you to Australia.” Well, a local wine pairing with a local food helps better! Leaning wine is a journey, and at the end, we will find out that wine is just a tool for us to exploring the world, to understand different culture.
I’m currently plan to study IWS and hopefully I will find it as useful as well.
There is a saying at the beginning of the FWS book impressed me, “Education is not a destination but a journey.” I started my FWS study after completing my WSET Diploma study, I was thinking of no challenges at all. However, I still found there was so much to learn about…
So, forget about the destination and enjoy the journey! :) "
