What to Know Before Taking the CSW Wine Exam (+ Real Questions I Remember)

Summary: Thinking about the Certified Specialist of Wine exam? I recently completed the CSW and I sharing my study strategies. This overview covers why I chose CSW over WSET, my textbook strategy, the multi-sensory study system and the resources worth your money.

Jody Holman, CSW practicing her favorite activity (photo courtesy of Amy Mayo)

If you are researching the Certified Specialist of Wine exam, you have landed in the right place. I recently took the CSW and want to share some of what I learned while it is still fresh—the study strategies that actually worked for me, the resources worth your money, and yes, the actual exam questions I can remember.

Fair warning: I walked into this thinking I knew a decent amount about wine. The CSW quickly humbled me and revealed just how vast the world of wine really is. But that is exactly what makes this certification so valuable.

What Actually Is the CSW Exam?

The Certified Specialist of Wine is a certification through the Society of Wine Educators. There are 100 multiple-choice questions that you can take either online or in person- passing requires 75% or higher. The Society of Wine Educators does not publish official pass rates, but from everything I have researched, first-time test-takers pass somewhere between 48-70% of the time.  If you do not pass the first time, they offer a discounted rate for your second go-round. Pass and you get to use "CSW" after your name, which is pretty cool.

How Hard Is It Really?

The CSW is considered one of the toughest wine exams out there, even though it is "only" multiple choice. It is a combination of fact-learning and theory covering the science, geography, and theory of wine, including viticulture, winemaking techniques, grape varieties, wine laws and classifications, chemistry, food pairing, service, storage, and the historical and cultural context of wines worldwide. It tests both factual knowledge and conceptual understanding, requiring precise recall as well as reasoning about how climate, terroir, and production methods shape wine. 

CSW vs. WSET vs. CMS: What's the Difference?

The CSW sits roughly equivalent to WSET Level 3 or CMS Level II, but it is significantly cheaper and does not require you to follow a structured class schedule. If time and money matter to you (and when don't they?), CSW gives you excellent bang for your buck.

Here is the big difference: CSW is pure theory. WSET and CMS both include tasting components and focus heavily on wine service, pairing, and the hospitality side of wine. If you work in restaurants or bars, those programs might serve you better. But if you want comprehensive wine education that you can complete on your own timeline without service industry requirements, CSW is your answer.

(The SWE also offers the Certified Wine Educator program above CSW, which is intense—multiple exams, tastings, presentations, the works for people who want to teach wine professionally, which is probably beyond what most hobbyists are after.)

Who Should Take This Exam?

The CSW is perfect for:

• Wine enthusiasts who want serious, comprehensive knowledge

• People considering careers in wine education or sales

• Anyone who wants to study independently on their own schedule

• Folks who want deep theoretical knowledge without tasting requirements

• Wine professionals (retail, sales, distribution) who need expert-level understanding

Basically, if you are a wine nerd and want to understand what is happening in that glass beyond "mmm, tastes good," this is your exam.

Tasting "practice"

Why I Chose CSW Over WSET

I needed a wine certification that fit my life, not the other way around. WSET requires scheduled classes and set timelines, which wasn't going to work for my schedule. The CSW let me study completely on my own time—early mornings, late nights, weekends, whenever I could carve out focused study sessions.

The other big reason? No tasting component. I can practice tasting wines on my own time (and boy, do I)!  I am not trying to become a Master Sommelier. I wanted deep theoretical knowledge about viticulture, winemaking, and global wine regions—and the CSW delivers exactly that without formal tasting exams.

Timeline Reality Check

Most people spend 1-2 years preparing for the CSW, especially while working full-time jobs. I was extremely focused and finished in about 6 months, but that required consistent, dedicated study time, including standing in line with flashcards, and walking around the neighborhood with audio. Multiple hours per week, every single week. Don't underestimate what you are signing up for.

The Brutal Truth: You Must Study EVERYTHING in That Book

Here is what nobody tells you upfront: there are no guidelines about what specific content from the textbook will appear on the exam. But if it is in that book, it could be on the exam!  You could get questions about major regions or obscure sub-appellations, big-picture winemaking concepts or granular production details. You simply will not know until you are sitting there staring at the screen.  

Yes, it's intense. Yes, it's a lot. But there is no shortcut here.

The Study Resources That Actually Matter

1. The Official CSW Textbook and companion Workbook (Your Foundation)

This is your bible. The workbook mixes map work, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, and multiple choice questions.

Non-negotiable rule: Before you schedule your exam, you must be able to answer every workbook question accurately. If you can't, you are not ready. I am serious about this.

2. Jane Nickles's Virtual Classes (The Framework)

The SWE offers virtual seminars with Jane Nickles as part of membership.  She is legendary in wine education circles- people rave about her.

Real talk, though: I found her classes relatively high-level. They will not give you all the granular details you need to pass, but they are good for understanding how everything connects. Think of Jane's classes as your roadmap—the textbook and workbook fill in the actual roads, exits, and street names.

Bottom line: Buy the book, get access to the classes, use them together.

3. Karen MacNeil's The Wine Bible (The Secret Weapon)

I learned early on while reading this tome that the CSW materials pull heavily from it. The SWE textbook covers the same content, in the same order, but The Wine Bible is more engaging and fun to read. If you find yourself glazing over during textbook sessions (guilty), switch to The Wine Bible for that section. Your brain will thank you.

4. Online Flashcard Apps (For Those Random Moments)

I used a flashcard app that already has CSW questions built in—absolute game-changer for studying while standing in line at the grocery store, or waiting for appointments. Being able to quiz myself during otherwise mundane moments added up to hours of extra study time.

The official SWE flashcards ($19 for 1000 cards) are also excellent if you prefer those.

5. AI-Generated Practice Quizzes (My Secret Weapon)

This one was huge for me. I took quiz questions from the workbook and fed them into AI tools to generate hundreds of additional practice questions. This gave me:

• More practice than the official materials alone

• Questions phrased differently to test actual understanding vs. memorization

• Fresh material to keep my brain engaged

I also used these AI-generated questions in my audio recordings (more on that in a minute). This approach was enormously helpful for identifying weak spots and building confidence.

6. Official SWE Practice Materials

Your $135 yearly SWE membership (required to take the exam) includes a free online course with chapter quizzes and three 100-question practice exams. Take all of them.

I also bought: Practice quizzes and tests ($19) - Five 25-question topic quizzes and three 100-question simulated exams

Key benchmark: If you are consistently scoring 80% or higher on practice tests, you are likely ready for the real thing.

My Study System: What Actually Worked

Here is the strategy that worked for me (as I had not had to memorize this much information since Chemistry class in high school).  First, I studied the entire 300-page textbook cover to cover multiples times over.  I even worked through the index to make sure I could define every single term.

I went through that book four times, each with a different purpose:

• First read: Get a sense and general appreciation of the material

• Second read: Underline what I thought was important

• Third read: Underline (in a different color) the more detailed facts once I had learned the general concepts

• Fourth read: In conjunction with maps, audio recordings, and practice test review to get more granular

Once I had that foundation, I built a multi-sensory approach that played to my strengths as a visual and auditory learner:

Visual Learning: The Map Method

The SWE provides blank maps of wine regions, and I turned these into my most valuable study tool. Here is how I used them:

wine map Greece study material

Wine map of Germany for CSW

China wine practice map

I bought clear sheet protectors and put each blank map inside with the filled-in version on the back. Then I used dry-erase markers to fill in regions, sub-regions, key grapes, soil types, climate features—whatever mattered for that area.

I quizzed myself by filling in the map, flipping the sheet protector over to check my answers, erasing, and doing it again. And again. And again. The repetition of physically drawing and writing burned these maps into my memory in a way that just reading never could.

I still have all these maps and use them as reference tools. They are great study and review materials still.

Helpful tip: I created my own mnemonics for each wine region. These memory tricks helped me keep straight which grapes go where, what climate patterns affect which areas, and how different appellations relate to each other. Make them as silly or personal as you want—the more ridiculous, the more memorable.

Auditory Learning: Custom Recordings

I recorded myself asking quiz questions about every wine region, important grapes, classifications, winemaking techniques—basically everything that mattered. These recordings included:

• Workbook questions

• AI-generated questions

• Key facts I needed to memorize

Then I listened to them everywhere- walking the dog, doing dishes, in the car, folding laundry, even falling asleep at night. Any activity that did not require my full attention became study time. This "passive" review (it is not actually passive, but it feels easier) helped cement massive amounts of information without feeling like traditional studying.

I still have these recordings and reference them when I need to refresh my memory on something.

The Exam Questions I Actually Remember

Alright, here is the part you have been waiting for. These are the actual questions I encountered on my exam. I could not remember all 100, but this should give you a real sense of the detail level and what they are actually testing.  Mind you, they will NOT be grouped into topics or sections on the exam, so plan on being able to jump from general to granular, or one region to another from one question to the next.

Geography & Appellations:

Labelling and Geography is covered in detail on the exam

·       Which wine producer is likely to make Chenin Blanc? (Four French options)

·       Question about Bougros and what region it is in

·       Is Aloxe-Corton in Montrachet Grand Cru or Premier Cru?

·       Where is Corvinone used?

·       Bierzo grapes

·       Azores DOC question

·        Region with most Vinos de Pagos

·       Which region of Douro is closest to Spain—answers included a fake region

·       Italy red wine regions (options included Barbaresco, Barolo, Roero)

·       Central Coast AVA question describing the whole AVA—whether it stretched from San Francisco to Santa Barbara, included mountains, close to coast

·       Lodi: which areas are NOT correct

·       Warmest area: Chilean regions, Russian River Valley, Fort Ross, Alexander Valley

·       Wines of Oak Knoll AVA

·       Where is Galura produced

·       Main Oregon grape

·       Where most Mexico wineries are located

·       Washington: arid areas and mountain ranges

·       Beaujolais in South France—mostly white? Largest AOC?

Napa grape varietals

Grapes & Varieties:

·       Which regions are most likely to make wine from Pinot Noir?

·       Similar question for Cabernet Franc

·       Areas that would produce single variety Viognier

·       Percentages for Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon labels

Wine Styles & Profiles:

·       What type of wine is most likely produced with saignee? (Options: sweet white, Blanc de Blancs, sparkling, red)

·       Profile of Rioja wine: red berry fresh meant to be drunk young, carbonic maceration, or leather and smoke?

·       Profile of Sauvignon Blanc that had been left on lees

·       Question about lighter sherries

·       Franciacorta region and method of sparkling production

·       Method of sparkling wine in Bourgogne (traditional)

Classifications:

·       Australian wine classification: is it WO or G.I.? Is it regulated for production techniques and grapes or similar to the US?

·       Which Bordeaux 1er Cru is not part of original 1855 classification

·       Champagne listing from dry to sweet—tricky because the correct answer left one out

Austria & Germany:

·       Austrian areas question with a lot of German names mixed in

·       Question about Wagram (Grüner Veltliner)

Serving techniques are covered. on the CSW exam

Technical & Production:

·       Question about methanol

·       What is liqueur d'expédition?

·       Letting juice settle before fermenting question

·       Serving wine from the right and leaving glass on table or taking it off

South America:

·       Chile: reason for no phylloxera

·       Name of most southern Chile region

·       Benguela Current question

Tasting & Sensory:

·       Flavor/feeling of unripe/undeveloped tannins

·       Wine with light green tinge

·       Malic acid flavors

·       Sulfur in wine

The exam includes deliberately tricky answers designed to catch surface-level knowledge.

Was it worth it?

Absolutely. Not for the letters after my name (though that is nice), but for genuinely understanding the story in every bottle. I can now recognize patterns across regions, understand why certain grapes thrive in specific terroirs, and speak intelligently about wine from anywhere in the world.

Wine and lavender in Provence

Key Takeaways for Future Test-Takers

That moment when you realize how little you knew about wine before starting? That is exactly when the real learning begins. Embrace it. 

1. Over-studying is the strategy. There are no guidelines, so you need to know more than what appears on the exam.

2. You don't need to memorize every single appellation, but you need broader and deeper knowledge than you think.

3. Jane's classes give you the framework, but they are not enough alone, by ANY means. Pair them with serious textbook work.

4. AI tools can supercharge your studying by generating endless practice questions.

5. The Wine Bible makes studying more enjoyable and covers the same material as the official textbook.

6. Multi-sensory learning works. If you are visual, make maps. If you're auditory, record yourself. If you are kinesthetic, write everything out by hand.

7. Timeline matters: Plan for 1-2 years if you are working full time. Even aggressive studying takes months.

8. The exam includes trick questions—fake regions, similar-sounding names, options designed to test real knowledge vs. surface memorization.

9. 80% on practice tests = ready. This benchmark held true for me.

10. Use all 80 minutes. Check and recheck your work. After months of studying, give yourself every possible advantage.

Lastly, pour yourself a glass while you study a particular chapter or wine.  It brings it all together and reminds you why you are doing this!

And good luck!

Questions about the CSW exam or wine travel? Reach out—I'm happy to help!

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Sipping rosé in Sardinia

Ready to Explore the World's Wine Regions in Person?

Now that you've dove deep into the theory, why not experience these wine regions firsthand? From cycling the Alsace Wine Route to exploring Burgundy's Grand Crus, Viewfinder Travel designs bespoke wine-focused journeys that bring your CSW knowledge to life.

Imagine tasting Riesling in the actual vineyards you studied, discussing terroir with family winemakers who've tended their vines for generations, and experiencing the cultural context behind every appellation you memorized.

Visit ViewfinderTravel.com to start planning your next wine adventure.

Dreaming of Bordeaux châteaux, Tuscan hillsides, or the Douro Valley's terraced slopes? We can curate a journey as carefully considered as your study plan—with all the insider access, exceptional accommodations, and authentic experiences that transform wine travel from tourism to true immersion.

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CSW Exam FAQs

How long does it take to prepare for the CSW exam?Most people study for 1-2 years while working full-time. I completed it in 6 months with very focused, consistent study—multiple hours per week, every single week. Your timeline will depend on your existing wine knowledge and how much time you can dedicate.

Do I need wine industry experience to take the CSW?Not at all! The CSW is perfect for serious hobbyists. You just need dedication and a genuine interest in learning about wine at an advanced level.

What's the pass rate for the CSW exam?The SWE doesn't publish official numbers, but most sources estimate 48-70% for first-time test-takers. With thorough preparation using the resources I've outlined, you can absolutely be in that passing percentage.

Can I really take the exam online?Yes! I took mine online through ProctorU. It's straightforward and you get the full 80 minutes to complete and review your answers.

Is the CSW harder than WSET Level 3?They're considered equivalent, but the CSW is entirely theory-based with no tasting component. Many people find it challenging because of the breadth of knowledge required and lack of clear guidelines about what will be tested.

How much does the CSW certification cost?You'll need a $135 yearly SWE membership (required), the exam fee, and I'd budget another $50-75 for practice materials, flashcards, and study resources. It's significantly cheaper than WSET Level 3.

What can I do with a CSW certification?The CSW is ideal for wine educators, sales professionals, retailers, writers covering wine regions, and serious enthusiasts. It gives you expert-level theoretical knowledge that elevates how you understand, discuss, and work with wine.

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About the Author

Jody Holman is a boutique travel advisor, luxury travel writer, and photographer specializing in customized journeys through wine regions worldwide. She curates immersive experiences, teaches wine classes (including CSW prep insights!), and shares sensory-rich stories through Viewfinder Travel. Her work blends precision with a love of cultural depth, culinary discovery, and the unexpected moments that make travel unforgettable.

Copyright 2025 Viewfinder Travel & Holman Photography

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