Divining Fine Wine
 
Spirits Scholar Pours Forth on Wine Appreciation

By Warren Rojas

Jay Youmans
Photography by Morgan Howarth

Quick—what do you call someone who gleefully sips wine morning, noon and night? Some might be labeled "winos." Veteran oenophile Jay Youmans, on the other hand, has the credentials to instead be considered a "master."

Youmans is a graduate of the grueling Master of Wine program, an exhaustive wine course administered by the London-based Institute of Masters of Wine. According to IMW executive director Siobhan Turner, there are 257 MWs worldwide—a diverse membership comprising 194 men and 63 women from 20 different countries, including two dozen U.S. alumni.

Whereas the MW title is basically a prerequisite for top-tier wine jobs in Europe, Youmans acknowledges the prestigious degree is "not that well known here in the U.S."

At least not yet.

Turner says part of the IMW mission is to promote widespread wine education, an incremental goal they approach via alumni-based instruction. "It's principally the existing members...give their time voluntarily to help current students," she says of the continuing outreach. To that end, Youmans and the other stateside MWs—a growing fraternity that includes wine professionals as well as grape-savvy doctors and film executives—collaborate regularly to help educate and recruit new members.

"There is very much a move to get more people in the U.S. to pass this thing," Youmans says, quickly adding that occasional happy hour enthusiasts need not apply. "You have to be pretty fanatical to do this," he warns.

Joining the MW ranks requires over two years of intensive study, attendance at a battery of annual seminars, and the completion of a taxing four-day exam (including the blind-tasting and evaluating of dozens of mystery wines). The yearly exam is broken up into three sections: the practical/blind-tasting component, the wine theory/essay portion (topics range from acceptable viticulture practices to contemporary marketing strategies) and a dissertation.

Once you elect to sit for the exam, Turner says you have three chances or four years (whichever comes first) to successfully pass each section.

According to Youmans, it's better to know a little bit of everything than a lot about any single topic. "The key to passing this thing...somehow you have to know with all these questions is how it's [winemaking] done all over the world," he counsels. As part of his own exam preparation, Youmans bought around 40 mixed cases of wine and analyzed three random bottles each night—because, in the end, he believes blind tasting is "all about repetition and getting to know the wines." He also digested new wine books by the dozens, and spent countless hours every weekend composing practice essays at his local library.

But with each passing year, Youmans finds there's that much more to learn. "Every vintage shakes everything up," he says of the fluid industry, noting, "You can't possibly know it all."

Turner, meanwhile, stresses that although the IMW has a reputation of being "ferociously difficult," the expanding member rolls confirm there is plenty of room for those willing to make the intellectual investment. "It's certainly a challenge," she says of the elusive MW diploma, "[but] if people put the time in, it's not impossible."

To learn more about the comprehensive Master of Wine program, please visit: www.masters-of-wine.org. For a schedule of Youmans' progressive wine seminars, visit: www.washingtonwineacademy.com, or to sign up for his new wine-centric newsletter, visit: www.i-winereview.com

(February 2007)