Natalia Morrison, IWS

Congratulations to Natalia Morrison, IWS, for achieving highest honors in the Italian Wine Scholar exam with AWSEC, Hong Kong.

About Natalia:

The IWS course has been a real gift! It’s allowed me to understand so much more about the when, why, how, where, and what of Italian wines - the historical background, the geographical and cultural contexts, as well as current grape growing and winemaking traditions and regulations.

But the IWS isn’t only a fascinating program to study - it’s also been very practical as it helps me better predict what’s going to be inside the various bottles of Italian wine I come across and, as a result, what might be the best way to enjoy that wine! Salute!

What do I do? I’m a wine educator with AWSEC Hong Kong. I love my job!

How did it all begin? When we moved to Hong Kong a number of years ago, my husband and I began studying wine together as a hobby. We did WSET level 1 (wine), 2 (wine and spirits), and 3 (wine). We also did the WSET level 3 in sake together. I was lucky enough to win an award to get my first year of the diploma (WSET Level 4 Wine & Spirits) paid for and was asked at that point to teach Levels 1 and 2 wine at AWSEC. Teaching was a great way to reinforce the basics for the diploma (which, by the way, I just found out I passed with distinction - I’m ecstatic!). I’m now teaching WSET level 3, too.

Part-way through the diploma I found out about WSG courses. I took all of them (SWS, IWS and FWS) to reinforce and round out my WSET diploma studies. They’re fantastic courses and added a lot of meaning and context to a more theoretical study of wine. I’ve since been approved to teach SWS and am in the process of getting approval to teach IWS, too. After I write the FWS exam, I hope to be able to teach that course at some point, too!

Thanks for offering these fantastic courses!