Page 27 - Sphere No.22 (Aug 2008)

If you have
staff who are
knowledgeable
about wine
it positively
affects your
sales but it
benefits the
customer as well
SPHERE 25
The Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses, generally regarded as the best, are available in Hong Kong.
internationally with the wine industry. It was unanimously
decided that this was the most internationally recognised,
reputable and stable wine course. It’s more expensive and
requires more organisation but that investment is worth it.”
WSET offers foundation, intermediate and advanced wine
courses with the option to proceed to a diploma. A new mem-
ber of staff can generally expect to begin an intermediate course
within three to six months of joining the company.
“We feel that by that stage that new joiner will have
learned a lot on the job from the senior staff in the store.
They are always tasting wines and are invited to join cus-
tomer tastings for their own knowledge and experience.
For that reason we feel that the intermediate level is a good
place to start,” Mr Hepple explains.
The staff ’s very high pass rate at that level would appear
to justify his view. In 2007 all of the 18 students taking the
course achieved passes – even though all were Cantonese
speakers and the course was taught in English. There are, as
yet, no WSET course materials offered in Chinese.
The tuition and study involved are intensive. The interme-
diate course takes about three weeks, with a two week break
for further study and revision before the exam.
The advanced course takes five weeks, with another fort-
night’s grace period before themoment of truth for the students,
although the courses also include an element of continuous
assessment. While the interme-
diate exam is largely theoretical
the examining process for the
advanced course also assesses the
students’ ability to taste and iden-
tify wines.
“Since 2004 we have put 76 staff
through the intermediate course,
and 41 through the advanced
course. That’s a lot, given our total
number of employees. Allowing
for a certain turnover of person-
nel, almost all our staff have been
through it,” says Mr Hepple.
Not many of the chain’s com-