Congratulations to Hallie Zmroczek, IWS, for passing the Italian Wine Scholar exam with highest honors with Wine & Spirit Archive, Portland, Oregon.
About Hallie:
I had always really enjoyed wine and wine tasting and wanted to know more about it. Living in Oregon, the Willamette Valley and the Columbia River regions are just 40 minutes away in either direction and totally beautiful. My comedy partner, Adrien, also felt the same way so we started on a journey of creating a podcast centered around demystifying wine while having fun. As our knowledge started to grow, we decided to take the WSET 2 program through the Wine & Spirit Archive. It was while taking this class that I learned about the Wine Scholar Guild and the programs they offered. Even though I took French throughout High School and College, something about Italy always fascinated me, from the history, culture and food to the wine! Therefore, I decided it was time to up my Italian wine knowledge.
I have completed WSET 2 and plan to take WSET 3 in the near future. What stood out for me in that program was that there were so many different Italian grape varietals that I didn’t know about which peaked my interest in less traditional non-international varieties. The IWS program defiantly expanded (GREATLY LOL) on those grapes and of course many other grapes I would have never heard had I not taken the IWS program (hello Schioppettino!)
When I take WSET 3 which I heard is much more in depth than WSET 2, I will have a much better understanding on viticulture in general, and how history can shape an area and how and why certain grapes are suited for certain areas. Italy is such an important country in the wine world. Many new world regions either grow grapes native to Italy or are adopting viticulture and winemaking styles used in Italy. Having this expansive knowledge on Italy will only benefit me in future wine studies moving forward.
Taking IWS has really fueled my passion to want to learn more. What I love about wine is that it is more than a drink. It is history, geology, geography, and other subjects all rolled into one. Being able to learn about and taste so many different varietals really helped broaden my palate and beefed up my tasting descriptors as well. The program also gave me that extra knowledge confidence boost I can use in my podcast, so I can easily explain things related to wine while focusing more on the funny aspect of the podcast.
