Congratulations to Sanghyuk Lee, IWS, for passing the Italian Wine Scholar exam with highest honors!
About Sanghyuk:
I’m a representative of a small wine shop in South Korea and at the same time wine enthusiast. As wine knowledge is wide, deep and interesting, continuous study of wine is important. For me, wine is like a mentor which makes me humble. This makes me study and enjoy wine everyday!
I started to study wine at the age of 23. I was hospitalized at that time because I was injured. Spending time alone in the hospital was boring so I looked around and found a book about wine on the bookshelf. So, with curiosity, I started to read that book. After reading that book, I wanted to explore more about wine, so, since then, I read various books about wine such as Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil and The Complete Practical Winetasting Course by Michael Schuster and studied wine by myself by tasting different types of wine based on a guideline in books.
I wanted to study wine more by taking official courses. So, in 2017, I passed WSET Level 3 Certification after attending lectures by Soojin Park (WSET Diplomate) in WSA Wine Academy in South Korea. Also, in 2018, I passed FWS with Highest Honors. While I was looking for my next goal after passing FWS, I found out about the IWS Program from WSG. Through that IWS Program, I could acquire more knowledge about Italian wine deeply and systematically. Moreover, it was a great opportunity to learn about the history of Italian wine and food culture. My goal is to pass FWS, IWS and SWS with Highest Honors before I take the WSET Diploma course.
I love to study wine continuously because it always makes my life energetic. Wine is my life-long friend and business partner. Thus, I would like to spend my entire life by reading and studying wine.
I just completed the Spanish Wine Scholar program (from September to October) at the WSA Wine Academy in South Korea and took the exam, and I’m waiting for the result now. I am now interested in taking the WSET Diploma course, so I am planning to take the distance learning course for the WSET Diploma.
To briefly describe the IWS Program, it is a concentrated knowledge of Italian wine. It helps to understand terroirs and towns of all regions in Italy in detail. The surprising fact is that this program contains Italian terroir more closely than any other programs. By learning a terroir and wine system in detail which is an essence of wine, I could learn more about the nature of Italian wine.
Also, I was surprised that this program deeply taught about all regions and DOC/DOCGs of Italian wine. I think it delivered general and detailed knowledge about Italian wine to students at once. Lastly, the detailed explanation about many Italian native grape varieties was impressive. The part which gathers Italian native grape varieties based on genetic characteristics of grape was very interesting.
Through the IWS Program, I could learn detailed knowledge about Italian wine which I couldn’t easily learn in other courses. I appreciated WSG online instructor (Ms. Andrea Eby) and members who gave me a guideline on all parts. I think the IWS Program is an essence of learning knowledge of wine in the world beyond Italy because Italy is the origin of viticulture and vinification .
