Hello everyone!

Who am I?

I’m Anna Spooner - a qualified wine educator and communicator. I'm two time winner of the Decanter 'Virtual Wine Experience' award (2022 and 2021), as well as a runner-up for the IWSC Emerging Wine Communicator Award in 2022 and 2023 and runner-up in the Jancis Robinson Wine Writing Competition 2022.

I am also at Stage 2 on the Master of Wine programme, believed to be the hardest exams in the world of wine (more people have been to space than completed the Master of Wine exams). I have included some more about what the MW is at the end of this page.

The crux of the fund-conundrum

I am currently employed by The Wine Society but as of this March, I am packing my bags and heading to the Southern Rhône to live closer to my parents and set up my own wine business there.

As I am now self-funding the MW, this year will cost me well over £10,000.

This isn’t a charity plea!

I don’t want to have to defer this year due to finances. So, I am asking for support in the form of a kind of ‘futures’. After my Stage 2 exams in June, I will be launching a platform of online events, private tuition, private online events and video recordings as well as tastings, lunches and dinners in the Southern Rhône.

So, whilst I want to spend the next few months focusing on exams, I am offering the opportunity to ‘reserve’ my services from June 2023 onwards - a little bit like buying wine En Primeur. These will be better than the fees I charge upon launching the site, as a way to say ‘thank you’ for believing in me and supporting me before my launch.

A list of options/services is as follows -

Further details on each of the offerings can be found on the photo attachments below. If you would like more information on any of the above or other wine services I might offer then please get in touch. Of course if you want to pop a couple of pounds on as a ‘best of luck’ then that’s incredibly kind of you!

A huge thank you in advance for anyone who invests, it means the world to me.

(And, of course, you're welcome to make a little donation for fun then you're more than welcome! Every little helps and I will be so grateful.)

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The Master of Wine

The programme consists of 3 stages.

Stage 1 takes a minimum of one year and candidates can pass this stage by scoring enough points in an annual tasting and written exam (which I passed first go last year). The tasting exam consists of 12 wines which the candidate must taste blind and then answer various questions on - including things such as 'what vintage'... it's not a myth! My exam last year asked me to name various Port and Bordeaux vintages as well as to identify and argue the case for several wines from around the world.

The written exam for Stage 1 involves choosing two essay topics from a possible three. This could be anything from the future commercial potential of hybrid varieties (yes, that's what we got asked) to the difference in pre-bottling treatments for the quality control of organic wines (yes, they asked that too.)

Stage 2 again takes a minimum of one year with final exams consisting of three tasting papers and five written papers in June this year. It's common for this stage to take people several years to complete and candidates need to pass ALL the tasting papers in one sitting and ALL the theory papers in one sitting. Incredibly cruel but what makes this the ultimate challenge in the wine world.

Finally, Stage 3 is an original research piece, a dissertation if you will. This must add to the existing body of work in any field you choose in the vast subject of wine. From 18th-century literature about wine, to different strains of yeast - you name it, you can write about it. But it's assessed very strictly and can also take several years to pass.