My wife, Fliss Cox, received her Diploma from the WSET at their annual ceremony at the Guildhall in April this year.  I hope many of us can still remember achieving this significant qualification (and of course some have gone beyond and have gained their MW).

Fliss’s Diploma was made more special because she won the Vintners’ Cup, awarded each year to the student achieving the highest marks in the Diploma exams.  She was keen that I extended our thanks to the many AWE members who supported her study, including the team at WSET (who enjoy a corporate membership of AWE), and particularly Erica Dent of Enjoy Discovering Wine.

Erica inspired Fliss’s choice of the wine region she will study using the bursary she has won.  The unique style of Semillon produced in the Hunter Valley is I am sure a source of fascination (and pleasure) to all of us, and Fliss aims to find out more about the history of how this style came about, and how the qualities of the grape, the terroir and the winemaking combine to create it. 

If AWE members would be interested Fliss would love to present her findings to them (once her report has been submitted to The Vintners’ Company), and is very keen that all AWE members know how much their efforts to inspire interest and passion in wine are appreciated by so many students.