Evidence of Your Expertise – Become an Advanced Certified Wine Professional

Certified Wine Professional – Advanced Level II Competencies
The competencies and skills required to pass the Certified Wine Professional – Advanced Level II include all of the competencies and skills listed above for Certified Wine Professional – Foundation Level I, plus:

Wine Knowledge

• How major grape varieties express themselves in different regions around the world
  
  
• Individual processes by which white, red, rose, sweet, sparkling, and fortified wines are made
  
  
• Role of yeasts in fermentation and the differences between indigenous yeast fermentations and fermentations induced by cultured yeasts
  
  
• Key winemaking techniques used to shape the flavor, texture, and structure of wines (barrel fermentation vs. tank fermentation, malolactic fermentation, sur lie aging, acidification, chaptalization, barrel aging, etc)
  
  
• Contribution and importance of oak and barrels, including why oak is used in winemaking (as opposed to other woods), what flavors oak contributes to wine, comparison of oak species, why the location of the forest matters
  
  
• How barrels are made, the differences between new and used oak and their relative impact on wine, the contributions and differences between barrel fermentation and barrel aging
  
  
• Residual sugar, and the various methods by which it can be achieved in wine
  
  
• Various scales by which sugar (and hence one aspect of ripeness) is measured (i.e., Brix, Baume, etc.)
  
  
• Sulfites and the requirements for the "contains sulfites" label in the United States
  
  
• Filtration and fining: what they are; why and when they are used
  
  
• What happens to wine as it ages
  
  
• Distribution of viticulture around the world
  
  
• Conditions under which grapevines grow best
  
  
• The major vine species
  
  
• Ways in which terroir and viticultural practices can influence planting decisions, varietal considerations, and wine styles
  
  
• Concepts of clones, scion, and rootstock: what they are and why they are important
  
  
• Concept and purpose of pruning, trellising, canopy management, vigor (site, varietal, rootstock), degree days, and sustainable agriculture, organic viticulture, and biodynamics
  
  
• The harvest; how it is conducted and how harvesting decisions affect wine quality and style
  
  
• Top wine producing states in the United States
  
  
• The major regulatory systems such as France's AOC system and the AVA system in the United States
  
  
• World wine consumption trends, including the major wine consuming (per capita) countries
  
  
• Origins of wine, including when vines were probably first planted and when and where wine drinking may have begun
  
  
• Major occurrences that were important in the history and evolution of wine, both in the United States and around the world, examples: the spread of Phylloxera, prohibition, the French Revolution, the 1855 Classification, Paris Tasting of 1976, and the French Paradox.

Wine Sensory Ability

• Advanced ability to describe and evaluate wine professionally, including assessing a wine's color, aroma, flavor, body, finish, and overall quality
  
  
• Able to discern and differentiate between alcohol, acid, sweetness, and tannin in wine
  
  
• Recognition of the roles that alcohol, acid, and tannin play in the overall personality of a wine
  
  
• Able to tell apart, with a good degree of accuracy, the leading types of wine from around the world, in a blind tasting
  
  
• Ability to differentiate, in a blind tasting, between a barrel-aged wine and one that is not; between ripe and under ripe wines
  
  
• Identify major wine flaws (TCA, Oxidation, Volatile Acidity, Brettanomyces, Sulfide/mercaptan)
  
  
• Knowledge of the optimal tasting conditions for the evaluation of wine

Business and Practical Expertise

• General costs to produce wines of varying qualities
  
  
• The 3 tier system, including what the 3 tier system refers to, and how wine moves from producer to consumer
  
  
• US federal laws regulating wine including labeling laws
  
  
• Wine lists, how they are put together including various strategies for pricing wines
  
  
• The concept of futures
  
  
• Able to communicate about wine including the ability to tailor the description of a wine to different audiences (describe wine "x" to a novice, describe the same wine to another professional)
  
  
• Differences between gross margin, mark-up, gross profit, and cost of goods sold

Wine and Food Comprehension and Pairing Skills

• Effect saltiness, sweetness, acidity, and bitterness in food can have on wine
  
  
• Effect alcohol, acid, tannin, and sweetness in wine have on foods of various types
  
  
• Strategies for pairing wine with highly aromatic dishes as well as highly spiced dishes
  
  
• The challenges presented by pairing wine with cheese and the ability to make good wine and cheese matches
  
  
• Basic "problem" foods (artichokes, etc.); why they pose challenges with wine and strategies for overcoming those challenges
  
  
• Ability, when presented with a recipe or a dish, to offer numerous ideas for wines likely to pair well with that dish and explain why those suggestions have validity