WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting (SAT): Appearance, Nose, Palate, Conclusions

The WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting is the Wine & Spirit Education Trust's framework for describing and assessing a wine under four headings: Appearance, Nose, Palate and Conclusions. WSET says its students learn to taste "in a logical, systematic, and above all professional manner" and that the SAT "is designed to build individuals' skills progressively through the different qualification levels." WSET publishes separate wine SATs for Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4. The structure stays the same while the scales grow finer: the Level 2 SAT rates acidity as low, medium or high, while the Level 3 SAT adds medium(-) and medium(+).

• WSET was founded as a charitable trust in 1969 to serve the growing educational needs of the UK wine and spirits industry, with funding provided by The Vintners' Company, according to WSET's history page
• WSET's history page states that its qualifications are available in over 70 countries in 15 languages and are updated on a three year cycle
• WSET's SAT page lists the current wine versions as Level 2 (2023, Issue 2), Level 3 (2022, Issue 2) and Level 4 (2023, Issue 1.2)
• The Level 3 and Level 4 SATs tell students that where entries are separated by a hyphen they must select one and only one option, while lines starting with 'e.g.' list entries to consider, not all of which need a comment for every wine

Appearance comes first. On the Level 3 SAT, clarity is clear or hazy, with hazy marked as possibly faulty; intensity is pale, medium or deep; and colour is chosen from a set list for each wine type. White runs lemon-green, lemon, gold, amber, brown; rosé runs pink, salmon, orange; red runs purple, ruby, garnet, tawny, brown. The Level 3 SAT also prompts other observations such as legs/tears, deposit, pétillance and bubbles. The Level 2 and Level 4 SATs use the same white and red colour lists but describe rosé as pink, pink-orange or orange.

• Clarity on the Level 2, Level 3 and Level 4 wine SATs is clear or hazy, with '(faulty?)' printed beside hazy
• Colour intensity is pale, medium or deep at every level; WSET's Level 3 exam advice lists writing medium(+) or medium(-) for colour intensity or alcohol as a common error
• WSET's exam advice gives an example of lexicon precision: 'lemon' gains a mark for colour but 'yellow' does not
• Other observations at Level 3 (legs/tears, deposit, pétillance, bubbles) are listed with 'e.g.', as entries to consider rather than a required checklist

The Level 3 nose has four lines: condition (clean or unclean, with unclean marked as possibly faulty), intensity (light, medium(-), medium, medium(+), pronounced), aroma characteristics, and development (youthful, developing, fully developed, tired/past its best). The Level 3 Wine-Lexicon asks tasters to think in terms of primary, secondary and tertiary: primary aromas and flavours are those of the grape and alcoholic fermentation, secondary those of post-fermentation winemaking, and tertiary those of maturation. The Level 2 SAT rates nose intensity as light, medium or pronounced, and neither the Level 2 SAT nor the 2023 Level 4 SAT has a development line.

• Primary clusters in the Level 3 Wine-Lexicon include floral (such as elderflower, rose and violet), green fruit, citrus fruit, stone fruit, tropical fruit, red fruit, black fruit, dried/cooked fruit, herbaceous, herbal and pungent spice
• Secondary clusters are yeast (lees, autolysis), with descriptors such as biscuit, bread and brioche; malolactic conversion (butter, cheese, cream); and oak, with descriptors such as vanilla, cloves, coconut, cedar and smoke
• Tertiary clusters are deliberate oxidation (such as almond, hazelnut, walnut and toffee), fruit development (such as dried apricot in whites and fig or prune in reds) and bottle age (such as petrol and honey in whites; leather, forest floor and mushroom in reds)
• WSET's Level 3 exam advice says there are five marks for aroma characteristics per wine, recommends at least five specific descriptors, and warns that vague terms such as 'berries' or 'spice' may lose marks

On the Level 3 palate, sweetness runs dry, off-dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet, sweet, luscious. Acidity and tannin run low, medium(-), medium, medium(+), high; body runs light to full and flavour intensity light to pronounced on the same five points; and finish runs short, medium(-), medium, medium(+), long. Alcohol is rated low, medium or high, with a separate low, medium, high line for fortified wines, and mousse is described as delicate, creamy or aggressive. Flavour characteristics use the same primary, secondary and tertiary framework as the nose. The Level 4 SAT splits tannin into level and nature, with nature prompts such as ripe, soft, smooth, unripe, green, coarse, stalky, chalky and fine-grained, and adds other observations such as texture and pétillance (still wines only).

• Level 2 sweetness is dry, off-dry, medium or sweet; the Level 3 and Level 4 SATs use dry, off-dry, medium-dry, medium-sweet, sweet, luscious
• The Level 2 SAT rates acidity, tannin and alcohol as low, medium or high, body as light, medium or full, and finish as short, medium or long
• WSET's exam advice says a range such as medium(+) to high acidity would not get a mark even if the wine fits it: students must choose one option
• WSET's exam advice says there are three marks available for flavours on the palate and that writing 'same as nose' will not get any marks

Conclusions turn the description into judgments. The Level 3 SAT has two lines: quality level, on the scale faulty, poor, acceptable, good, very good, outstanding; and level of readiness for drinking/potential for ageing, chosen from too young; can drink now, but has potential for ageing; drink now: not suitable for ageing or further ageing; and too old. The Level 3 Specification's tasting learning outcome asks candidates to describe the principal still wines of the world and use the description to make an assessment of quality and an assessment of readiness for drinking. The Level 4 SAT keeps the same quality scale but requires an explanation supporting the quality assessment, and asks whether a wine is suitable or not suitable for bottle ageing, again with an explanation required.

• WSET's Level 2 Award in Wines session plans list four parameters for assessing quality: balance, length/finish, intensity and complexity
• The same session plans state that quality assessment is not based on wine type, nor is it an assessment of how much you like or dislike a wine
• WSET's Diploma tasting guide (2018) calls a wine's overall balance and/or integration perhaps the most reliable indicator of quality, and says complexity can come from fruit character alone or from a combination of primary, secondary and tertiary aromas and flavours
• WSET's Level 3 exam advice says answering only 'Drink now' will not gain a mark; the answer needs the additional part, such as 'has potential for ageing' or 'not suitable for ageing'

At Level 3 the SAT is assessed directly. Unit 2 of the Level 3 Award in Wines, The Analytical Tasting of Wine, is examined by a blind tasting of two still wines, which may be taken from any of the specification's recommended tasting samples, and the paper must be completed in 30 minutes. The Level 3 Specification (2022, Issue 2) allots 20 marks to the description and assessment of the white wine and 21 to the red. WSET's tips for Level 3 candidates advise against trying to identify the wine and to evaluate what is in front of them instead. Beyond the exam room, WSET's Diploma tasting guide (2018) describes one of the challenges of tasting wine as a professional as being able to recognise and put aside personal preferences to reach a considered view based on the evidence.

• Unit 1 of the Level 3 Award in Wines is assessed by a closed-book exam of 50 multiple-choice questions and a short written answer paper; Unit 2 is assessed by a blind tasting of two wines
• An overall pass requires 55 per cent in both the theory and the tasting examination, and candidates must sit both units at the same sitting in the same language
• Candidates under the legal minimum age, or who choose not to taste alcohol for health or religious reasons, are not eligible for the Unit 2 assessment; they receive a record of achievement on passing Unit 1 but are not awarded the qualification
• WSET's blog notes that the tasting exam is the part of the Level 3 exam that more people pass

Primary sources: https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/11766/wset_l3wines_sat_en_may2022_issue2.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/wset-systematic-approach-to-tasting-sat, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/11731/wset_l3wines_specification_en_highres_may2022_issue2.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/13156/wset_l2wines_sat_en_may2023_issue2.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/13271/wset_l4wines_sat_en_aug2023.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/about-us/our-story, https://www.wsetglobal.com/qualifications/wset-level-3-award-in-wines, https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2024/how-to-ace-the-wset-level-3-award-in-wines-tasting-exam, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/13022/wset_l2wines_sessionplans_en_may2023_issue2.pdf, https://www.wsetglobal.com/media/6714/wset_l4diploma_cag_tasting_en_aug2018.pdf. Last verified 2026-09-29