Approaching 2013, it appears that December passed my blog by in a whirlwind of deaths and marriages, and rejected master of wine synopses in between a full-time job and Christmas shopping. I am called the queen of the thoughtful gift by my family but this year, I may have lost this title in the end-of-year hubbub.
It’s been a year of ups and downs but at the top of the ups is passing the Master of Wine tasting exam at the second go to add to my theory pass. After much whooping, jumping up and down and Champagne drinking, I realized that I had to think of a dissertation topic, which I had not given much thought to previously. Let’s face it, so few people pass the MW tasting exam I didn’t want to tempt fate by thinking ahead. Unfortunately, that’s landed me in a bit of bother. My first dissertation proposal that I sent in to the Master of Wine moderator was sent back telling me that my topic was basically a no-go. 20 hours of research down the drain.
This meant December was a mad rush to come up with plan B. I needed a new theme, many visits to the local library for research purposes, to speak to experts in the field and write up something worthy by the week before Christmas. I am now waiting to find out if my new topic (which has to be handed in anonymously so I can’t tell you what it is) is going to satisfy the moderator. This means I can’t do anything over the Christmas period but wait, losing more vital weeks before handing it in in June. Perhaps I will have to submit in 2014, as the new title requires the work of a small army. No wonder so many people falter at the last hurdle.
Looking forward to the coming year, there’s Pinot 2013 in Wellington to look forward to. I’m on a panel along with Lisa Perrotti-Brown MW, Tim Atkin MW and Matt Kramer, which means I’ll have to think of something intelligent to say. There’s hopefully a trip to Vinexpo planned in June and who knows, if I can get that dissertation in in time, there may be two letters after my name in September. And that, like tea and dunking biscuits, would be nice.
