Wine 'professor' discusses trends(1)
Peg San Felippo photo
Californian Liz Thach passed the notoriously difficult Master of Wine exam, including blind tastings and 10,000-word dissertation.
If you ever run into a Master of Wine, be sure to have a nice long chat. If nothing else, it will keep you humble.
Californian Liz Thach recently passed the notoriously difficult Master of Wine examination. Fewer than 300 experts in 23 countries hold that title, so she's in rare company. No one from Wisconsin is in this select group yet.
I think of these pros as the rock stars of the wine world, but most people just see them as the foremost authorities. British author and wine critic Jancis Robinson is one of the most widely recognized.
Thach (pronounced Tosh) was recently in Milwaukee for the first time visiting a friend, but because of a schedule conflict, I caught up with her by phone after her visit.
Her initial sip of our city was a good one: "I didn't realize how big and vibrant Milwaukee was."
Thach - with both MW and PhD after her name - is a professor of management and wine business at Sonoma State University. She is also a prolific writer, with 100 articles, six book chapters, and five wine books to her name.
Actually, one of her books was co-authored with Kate Kelly under the pen name of Kathleen Tosh. "Chardonnay Chalice" (Kathleen Tosh Books, 2010, $10.99), falls in the category of a "cozy" and reflects the lighter side of this academic's career.
"I love mystery novels and so it's a way to put wine and mysteries together," she said, noting that the next mystery to be decanted will be called "Zinfandel Zanies."
Despite her top-shelf credentials, she found the three-part MW exam to be "challenging, to say the least." She began studying for it about five years ago.
It's no surprise that Professor Thach did just fine on the theoretical part.
And, as she tells it, it was her students who egged her on, suggesting that she try for the exalted title, rather than just encouraging them to do it.
But the practical part - three 12-wine blind tastings - was more difficult for her.
"When I began preparing I only had a California palate - and only about 5% of the wines in the exam are from California," she said.
