MCQs, written open questions, blind tasting: Level 3 examines three skills, and two of them are technique. Here is the 6–8 week plan that trains them together — starting with a written answer on day one.
Start studying free →The Level 3 Award in Wines assesses you three ways: MCQ knowledge (50 questions), written technique (four open-response questions, passed separately from the MCQs), and blind tasting written up in the SAT structure. A study plan that only schedules reading prepares you for exactly one of the three. Plan all of them from week one.
The course book opens with the factors behind wine — grape varieties, climate and weather, soils, viticulture, vinification, maturation, even what drives price — plus tasting technique. Then it tours the wine world in depth: the French classics (Bordeaux, Burgundy, Alsace, Loire, Rhône, the South), Germany and central Europe, Italy, Spain and Portugal, the Mediterranean, and the southern hemisphere and Americas (South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the US and Canada, Chile and Argentina), before closing with sparkling and fortified wines. That's 33 chapters — roughly double Level 2's depth, with "explain why" everywhere Level 2 asked "which one".
Weeks 1–2 — foundations. The factor chapters (varieties through maturation) with MCQ drilling per chapter, plus your first habit: one written open question a day, graded, starting immediately. Writing technique needs weeks of repetition — it cannot be crammed at the end. Read how open questions are marked first.
Weeks 3–6 — the regions. Two or three region chapters at a time: read, drill the MCQs, and point your daily open question at the regions you just studied. Add one or two SAT-structure practice tasting notes a week — the structure must be automatic before exam day. Sit a timed MCQ mock at the end of each fortnight.
Final weeks — simulate. Sparkling and fortified, then full-pressure practice: timed mocks, timed open questions, complete tasting notes. You want MCQ mocks comfortably past the pass mark and written answers that reliably land their key facts.
Treating it like a bigger Level 2 and drilling only MCQs; starting written practice in the final week; writing everything you know instead of answering the command word (state, describe, explain); and practising tasting without the SAT structure, so the note wanders. Every one of these is a technique problem — trainable, if you start early.
The free Level 3 practice questions include two open questions with model answers; the open question guide dissects a weak answer against the model. In the trainer, the first chapters, one mock and one AI-marked open question per day are free.
Plan 6 to 8 weeks. The syllabus is roughly double Level 2's depth, and written-answer technique needs weeks of daily repetition on top of the reading.
Usually not on knowledge: the written open questions are a separate pass requirement, marked per distinct fact, and most candidates train only multiple choice.
In week one — one graded answer a day. See how open questions are marked to start right.
Yes: one or two SAT-structured practice notes a week from week three, so the structure is automatic before the blind tasting.
The written paper decides Level 3 — give it the weeks it needs, not the weekend it usually gets.
Try Level 3 free →