I have sent this to enough people at this point that I am sharing on here in case it is helpful to any prospective/new/current MW students. Reminder this is just what worked for ME and that everyone is different- the MW is all about developing your own, unique approach!
Books:
Understanding Wine Technology by David Bird
Viticulture by Stephen Skelton
Flawless by Jamie Goode (great as an audiobook)
How Champions Think
Oxford Companion to Wine- mostly I used the online Jancis subscription version since it's searchable
Podcasts/other media:
Big Vin Theory- a podcast by a fellow MW student who interviews key people in wine. SO HELPFUL. Plus will give you a good idea of how deep you need to go when interviewing wine professionals
Sam Cole-Johnson’s ‘Wine News in 5’ available on Spotify or via her Instagram page
Susie & Peter did a great podcast ‘Becoming a Master of Wine’, just search MW in spotify
Nova Cadamatre's MW blog- this is phenomenal to read about her trials/journey each year and how she finally overcame it
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Tasting:
You need to taste widely & often- I recommend a tasting group of any kind to start for exposure to different styles
Really only have 11 minutes per wine in the exam (LOTS of writing involved), so you need to be able to ID the wine in under 2 minutes
VERBAL TASTING was invaluable to me for this!
What I’d suggest doing to get started:
Build spreadsheet to catalog last 10 years of exam questions & wines
Start looking for similarities/frequency of topics/wines
-Divide questions into 6-8 subtopics per theory paper
-Start reading examiner’s reports- best guide as to what is expected