Round two… FIGHT!
Having survived (and hopefully crushed) the WSET Diploma’s first exam on Wine Production, you’re rallying to take on its second module. This WSET D2 Business of Wine study guide will give you a suite of succulent, insider tips to be as efficient in your prep as possible and minimize the chance of nasty surprises on exam day!
At this point, odds are you have already taken the WSET D1 Wine Production exam (or will be taking it shortly). If not…
Tip #1: Freshen Up Your WSET Level 4 D1 Knowledge
The slightly complicated thing about the WSET Diploma’s D2 exam is that it requires you to have a detailed working knowledge of all the content covered in the first module (D1) and definitely in WSET Level 3 (not D3). WSET D1 on Wine Production really provides an essential foundation for what you learn in D2 and, therefore, shows up in many ways in the D2 exam, particularly as substantiation for the answers you provide.
Therefore, it’s really essential that you keep your WSET D1 knowledge up-to-date.
The fastest and easiest way to accomplish that is to whip through digital flashcards from an app like Quizlet or Brainscape (we teamed up with experts to make our certified D1 Wine Production flashcards).
Tip #2: Don’t Waste a Second of Your Time
Isn’t it stupid and annoying that you were never taught how to study in school? At some point, we were all just expected to know how to do it. And so what did we do? We read and re-read the textbook, made notes, colored those notes in, and then read our notes. And through all of that, we kinda just hoped that the knowledge would stick.
These exercises are the way most students study for tests and exams, and yet they are incredibly inefficient. You’ve got a mountain of super granular information to remember. So you cannot afford to do what you’ve always done. It is imperative that you study smart.
The fastest way to learn, understand, and memorize A LOT of information in a short amount of time is spaced repetition.
This is a proven cognitive science tactic that basically involves repeating concepts at the perfect time interval so that you’re reminded of them juuust as you were beginning to forget them.
The best study tool for spaced repetition? FLASHCARDS. Particularly digital flashcards such as Brainscape or Anki, whose delivery is controlled by a spaced repetition algorithm that’s personalized to your unique pace of learning.
If you’re a nerdy glutton for science, you can read about the science of spaced repetition here. But if you’re short on time, you can skip straight to “the good stuff” with these already-made, expert-vetted flashcards for the WSET Diploma’s complete suite of exams, including WSET D2 Business of Wine, which is what you’re here for!
These flashcards cover all the highest-yield concepts in the official WSET Diploma textbooks and recommended reading. Powered by spaced repetition and a blend of other cognitive science tactics, like active recall and metacognition, they are the fastest, most efficient way to remember the facts you need to know to crush the WSET Diploma exams.
Tip #3: Mark Allocation Equals Time Allocation per Question
Essay questions posed by the WSET Diploma exams can vary wildly in mark allocation, from a 5% nibble of the exam’s total score (“define a term in a sentence or two”) to a staggering 50% (“provide a thorough discourse on this topic, explaining x, y, and z”).
The guidance here is simple…
You do not have time to waste. Every minute of the exam should be allocated accordingly. To figure out how, simply use the mark allocation per question to inform how much time you spend per question. Given that you have 60 minutes to finish the WSET D2 exam:
- If a question is worth 5%, you have 3 minutes to provide 2-3 sentences’ worth of an answer.
- If a question is worth 20%, you have 12 minutes.
- If a question is worth 50%, you have 30 minutes to provide a very detailed and robustly substantiated answer.
Mark allocation per question = time allocation = detail and thoroughness!
Pro Tip: Do not walk into any WSET Diploma exam expecting any one particular mark distribution. Just because, historically, the WSET Level 4 D2 exam has posed 4-5 questions with larger, more equally-weighted score allocations of between 20 and 50% does not mean your exam will look anything like that. It may… but there is zero guarantee.
The only thing you can and should bank on is expecting to get exam questions that require you to provide a robust and thorough analysis of the content. You’re playing in the big leagues, after all!
Tip #4: Pay Special Attention to the Command Words
Yes, ma’am!
Whenever you read a WSET Diploma exam question, underline the verbs or command words, like “define”, “describe”, “explain”, or “compare”. Then, do as they tell you to do!
The command words tell you what the WSET Diploma D2 examiner is asking you to do and, therefore:
- Exactly how you should answer the question, and
- The level of detail you should provide.
If the question says “describe”, it’s obviously expecting you to explain a single concept in as much detail as possible. But if the question asks you to “compare”, then you’ll have to define TWO different or similar things and relate them to each other in as much detail as you can.
The take-home message here is to make sure you understand exactly what the examiners are asking you to do by explicitly identifying the command words, and then delivering on that using your extensive knowledge base.
(As I pointed out in the previous tip, also pay attention to the mark allocation because that’ll instruct you on how detailed your response should be.)
Tip #5: Practice Your Logic and Reasoning Skills for the WSET D2 Exam
At the WSET Diploma level, you’re required to flex your logic and reasoning skills far more than in any other WSET exam to this point (level 1, 2, or 3). The extensive curriculum covered provides the essential knowledge you need: the bricks. But each question you’ll be asked in the exam will require you to “build a house,” and it’ll be up to you to figure out how to arrange those bricks, using the mortar of logic and reason to achieve a completed, substantiated answer.
This is how the WSET Diploma D2 exam works: “Evaluate this scenario related to the business of wine and use reason and logic to justify your analysis.”
In other words, don’t expect to just be able to dump everything you know about a topic on the page and move on. A lot of the questions posed are open-ended, entirely subject to interpretation, and ambiguous so you’ll actively have to engage logic and reason; to infer, make leaps, and draw conclusions based on scenarios or case studies you’ve probably never encountered before.
And the key to getting good at this is by taking WSET D2 practice questions…
Tip #6: Practice as Many WSET D2 Practice Questions as You Can
One of the tricky things about the WSET D2 module is that most of the course focuses on the more factual, discrete concepts relating to the business of wine. It’s only towards the end of the textbook that you begin to encounter how you should actually put these concepts into practice.
This can lull students into a false sense of confidence. You can memorize all of the key terms and definitions laid out in the WSET D2 textbook but be completely bowled over by the evaluation-style scenarios posed by the exam.
It’s not only what you know. It’s how you apply that knowledge to answering the more complex, ambiguous questions posed by the exam! And this is where practice becomes so important.
Where can you find WSET D2 practice questions?
The Wine & Spirits Education Trust (WSET) itself! The WSET offers previous exam questions for you to practice, as well as feedback as to what makes a good, distinction-worthy essay. To access these resources:
- Log into WSET Global >
- Diploma Student Resources Area 2024/25 >
- Modules >
- Scroll to Exam Guidance >
- Select any Examiners' Report >
- Scroll down within the report to ‘Theory Paper’.
This is a start but since every student will be making use of these same WSET D2 practice questions, you might even consider them the bare minimum of practice. At this level, it is up to you, dear reader, to be resourceful. Google is your friend.
Speaking of which, a simple search coughs up all kinds of resources, like this PDF of WSET Diploma practice questions by Kelly Liang of ‘A Thousand Glasses’.
My advice is to cherry-pick a few and read them in your free time. In other words, do not consider them a part of your prep, or else you might sink too much time into reading blog after blog after blog.
Also, remember to treat these resources as subjective! These are posts written by other WSET Diploma candidates from the perspective of their own personal experience. What they have to say is incredibly insightful, but what works for them may not work for you.
Tip #7: Use the Five P’s to Construct Your Answers
We’re now going to transition a little from study and exam technique to the frameworks you’ll be applying to all the analyses you will be doing. The first framework is encapsulated by the “Five P’s”:
- Product
- Price
- People
- Place
- Promotion
In other words, whenever asked a question, try to construct your answer based on the “Five P’s.” Some questions you could ask yourself as you go about doing this are (borrowed from ‘The Grape Pursuit’ in ‘WSET Diploma D2 Review – The Business of Wine’):
- What are the characteristics of the product that will appeal to the target customer (people)?
- What presentation (product) will attract the target customer?
- How does a certain factor affect the price of the wine?
- What are the people components (think: staff, customers, etc.)?
- What are the place components (think: vineyard, cellar, store location, point of sale, etc.)?
- Where is the product placed (where does our target customer shop)?
- What is the best way of promoting the product (how do we show its benefits)?
Using these questions as a scaffold upon which to build your answers will prevent you from leaving any points on the table. Of course, your ability to include all “Five P’s” in your answer MUST depend on the nature of the question. In other words, keep your answers strictly relevant to the question being asked by the examiners.
Tip #8: Layer in SWOT Analyses and PESTEL
Two other major frameworks you’ll be expected to skillfully work with (and that come up towards the end of the WSET D2 textbook) are:
- SWOT Analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. In English: how a company can evaluate internal and external threats to their goals.
- PESTEL: Political, Economic, Sociological, Technical, Environmental, and Legal considerations.
Both acronyms are intended to provide you with a framework upon which to perform your analyses and construct your answers. Know them. And get comfortable working with them. Just remember that you can apply these frameworks through the lens of both business AND winemaking/production (if possible and relevant). WSET D2 is the “Business of Wine” after all!
And just when you thought that 15 key terms were enough to work with, consider that you can apply a SWOT analysis to any of the Five P’s!
Consider Product X: what are the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to that product? How do the PESTEL (political, economic, sociological, technical, environmental, and legal) components affect that product? What about its price? Or its place, which could be both its provenance (vineyard/cellar/producer) AND point of sale (wine merchant)?
These three frameworks (Five P’s, SWOT, and PESTEL) will give you over 100 unique scenarios you can use as inspiration to totally crush any question the WSET Diploma D2 exam throws at you.
Important: Not every combination of these frameworks will work for every single question. In fact, the vast majority won’t, which is good. It simplifies things. You’ll just need to become good at reading the question, understanding what it wants from you, quickly sorting through those combinations, and efficiently discarding those that are irrelevant and out of scope.
Stay relevant, answering the specific question, and stay on target, delivering enough information to satisfy the mark allocation.
Tip #9: Layer in Your Knowledge of Winemaking and Production
Finally—and this adds yet another layer of complexity to the WSET Level 4 D2 exam—you’ll want to keep in mind everything you learned in WSET D1 Wine Production and definitely WSET Level 3.
This could mean evaluating:
- Products or prices in the context of viticulture (how grapes are grown) or winemaking (how wine is made).
- How the grape growing region of a wine influences the business decisions you might make to sell and promote that wine.
- The issue(s) involved in marketing still or sparkling wines through the lenses of a surplus vintage, market trends/fads, style (e.g., non-dosé sparkling wines, rosés, orange wines), or a product's scarcity (whether due to production size, a poor vintage, or the reputation of a winery).
- Top markets by value and top markets by volume
- The winemaking differences between a top-quality wine compared with one that is made inexpensively for immediate consumption
- Potential problems and their potential solutions or improvements. (Potential problems could be anything from agricultural issues, changes in regulations, low consumer knowledge, or if a market is sensitive to alcohol due to religion, and finally, if there are legal restrictions to the marketing of alcohol.)
Hopefully, you can now see how these more discrete, straightforward topics learned in previous modules or courses can be woven into your analyses.
A Final Note on Studying for the WSET Diploma Business of Wine
So, there are 9 excellent tips to apply as you dive into studying and practicing for the WSET Diploma Business of Wine exam:
- Freshen up your WSET D1 Wine Production knowledge
- Study smart and efficiently using adaptive digital flashcards such as Quizlet or Brainscape. (We've teamed up with experts to create this comprehensive set of WSET Diploma D2 Business of Wine flashcards).
- Use the mark allocation to guide your time investment (and detail) per question
- Pay close attention to the “command words” and answer the damn question
- Hone those critical thinking and reasoning skills in preparation for the exam
- Practice as many WSET Diploma practice questions as you can find
- Use the “Five P’s” as a framework to construct your exam answers
- Layer in SWOT analysis and PESTEL
- And layer in your knowledge of wine production and viticulture!
Yes, that’s a lot. The WSET Diploma D2 is a beast of an exam that really tests your ability to juggle a great suite of frameworks and concepts.
But if you know what you’re getting into and what the examiners expect of you, you’ll have won half the battle. The rest will come down to learning the content, which you can do hyper-efficiently with flashcards and practice, practice, practice!
Additional Reading
- How to pass the WSET Diploma D1 exam on Wine Production
- How to pass the WSET Diploma D3 exam on the Wines of the World
- How to ace the WSET Diploma D4 exam on Sparkling Wine
- How to pass the WSET Diploma D5 exam on Fortified Wines
*Disclaimer: Brainscape has worked with top wine experts to supplement the official publications and preparation offered by WSET.
References
Kang, S. H. (2016). Spaced repetition promotes efficient and effective learning. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 3(1), 12–19. https://doi.org/10.1177/2372732215624708
Karpicke, J. D. (2012). Retrieval-based learning: Active retrieval promotes meaningful learning. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 21(3), 157-163.
Lally, P., & Gardner, B. (2013). Promoting habit formation. Health Psychology Review, 7(sup1), S137-S158.
Wine & spirit education trust (WSET). WSET. (n.d.-b). https://www.wsetglobal.com/