Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program

Recently I started the first level, Level I - Aficionado of Wine (AW), of the Parker & Zraly Wine Certification Program on eRobertParker.com.

So far I've completed the Wines of France, Wines of Burgundy and Wines of Bordeaux tests all with flying colors. There are 8 exams in total, I still need to make my way through United States, Italy, Spain and Portugal, the Southern Hemisphere, and "Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe".

So what can you expect from this certification program? Well, given that you have to get to level III before you actually have to taste wines in order to pass the test, and Level I is all multiple choice online, the main purpose is for a Wine Enthusiast (don't mind the pun) to test their knowledge.

For me, it was a great way to motivate myself to learn more about regions aside from the American and French regions I tend to spend the majority of my time reading and drinking about.

For the most part, if you read the related sections in Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible as well as Kevin Zraly's Windows on the World Complete Wine Course: 2008 Edition you'll be in good shape to answer the majority of the questions.

On the France test, there were questions on what rules were a part of the AOC, what grapes are used in each region, wine making terminology, terminology from the regions, classifications and such.

Bordeaux and Burgundy dove more into the sub-regions of each region, asking a number of questions about what region a particular winery, or vineyard belongs. Of course, classifications, 1855 for Bordeaux and the Cru system for Burgundy was asked as well.

Occasionally I got what I felt were somewhat useless questions such as "how many acres are in region X" or "how many cases of red wine are produced in region y". Somewhat hard to study for questions like that.

For the most part, I'm getting what I wanted out of the exams, they are making me read more wine books and driving me to learn more about all kinds of different wine regions.

You do have to sign up for eRobertParker.com and pay for the exams which at the time of this writing was $35/exam or $195 for all 8. Quite a bit of money for a certificate and a small amount of bragging rights :)