WSET LEVEL 4 EXAMS SCRIPT 2025/2026 QUESTION AND
SOLUTIONS RANKED A+
✔✔List major wine production techniques that have helped wine production efficiency -
✔✔- Modern techniques for grape production, such as better site selection, clonal
selection, improved canopy management, pest and disease control
- Modern winemaking technology
✔✔What caused the significant reduction of wine production in Europe in 2017? -
✔✔Combination of spring frosts, hailstorms and severe heat waves
✔✔What wine regions are affected by long-term climate mate change? - ✔✔- Serious
droughts in South Africa and California
- More reliable sugar accumulation in certain regions in Europe
- New world regions too hot for certain varieties
✔✔How do GIs limit wine production? - ✔✔Define where grapes of wine with specific
geographical names can be grown, thus limiting the amount of wine that a can be
produced
- European PDO dictate what grapes, max yield and winemaking and maturation
techniques
✔✔What are the major aims of GI? - ✔✔- Define wine style produced in a particular
region
- Bring supply and demand more into line and reduce the risk of downward price
pressure
However, with rising demand, there is often pressure to extend the permitted production
area
✔✔How does the PGI system offer greater freedom to producers? - ✔✔- Based on the
vin de pays system
- Still require 85% grapes from a particular geographical area
- Wider range of varietiesNo rules on viticulture and winemaking
✔✔What could producers do when there is an oversupply of wine? - ✔✔- Sell excess at
much lower cost
- Try to find new markets and outlets - takes time, only for someone with market or
distributor
- Sell wine under different label and offer to supermarket, deep discounter, bar or
restaurant as private label wine
✔✔How does the oversupply of wine cause damage to brand image? - ✔✔- If a
producer is forced to sell at lower than usual price
- If retailer orders too much wine and has to lower the price to sell
,✔✔What are the problems associated with undersupply of wine? - ✔✔- Disappointing
clients and constrained relationships. Potential penalty or cancellation of contract
- Increased price, but most issue wines to main distributors on allocation
- Cheaper alternatives from other grape varieties or countries, especially in price-
sensitive markets
✔✔Why do very large companies have advantage when there is an undersupply of
wine? - ✔✔- They have wines at different price points, styles and origin
- They have alternative from within their portfolio
- Sell to different markets - less price-sensitive markets when price increases because
of undersupply
✔✔List major types of costs through the supply chain - ✔✔- Grape growing costs
- Winemaking costs
- Transportation costs
- Importation costs
- Sales costs
- Marketing costs
✔✔Major types grape growing costs? - ✔✔- Vineyard establishment
- Vineyard management
✔✔Major costs during vineyard establishment - ✔✔- Land purchase
- Surveying land to check suitability for viticulture and decide on grape varieties
- Site clearance: removing vegetation, large rocks etc
- Building access roads into the vineyard and between vineyard plots
- Buying and planting vines
- Buying stakes and wires etc for establishing and maintaining trellising
- Artificial drainageIrrigation system
- Protection against weather hazards
- Protection from animal pests: high fences, electric fences, netting
- Buying machinery and equipment
✔✔What factors cause high land price? - ✔✔- Price reflects the land's potential to
produce high-quality fruit
- Scarcity of land: prestigious regions; small GIs
✔✔What works are involved in establishing irrigation system? - ✔✔- Drilling boreholes
- Building reservoirs
- Laying pipes to bring water to vineyard
- Installing pumps to bring up underground water
- System of delivering water to vines
,✔✔What major machinery and equipment need to be purchased for the vineyard? -
✔✔- Tractors
- Spraying equipment
- Harvesting machines
= Garages or sheds to store machinery
✔✔List major vineyard management costs - ✔✔- Labor
- Machinery and equipment running costs: fuel and maintenance
- Vineyard materials: replacement vines and trellising
- Vineyard treatments: agro-chemicals, integrated pest management that requires
regular weather update
- Water: pay authorities to extract water from a river or buy water
- Electricity: irrigation, bird scarers, frost protection, many winemaking equipment
✔✔What kind of vineyards require more labor? - ✔✔- Steep vineyards
- Organic and biodynamic vineyards: additional procedures, highly skilled staff
- Where labor is expensive
- Harvest time
✔✔What costs are involved in winery establishment? - ✔✔- Land purchase
- Cost of building winery
- Equipment purchase (presses, tanks, pipes, pumps, refrigeration, bottling line)
✔✔What sources could funding for vineyard and winery establishment come from? -
✔✔- Vineyard owner
- Bank
- Investors
✔✔List major winemaking costs - ✔✔- Labor: small number of skilled staff full-time;
casual labor around harvest time
- Machinery and equipment running costs, e.g., fuel, maintenance
- Bought-in fruit
- Water, especially cleaning
- Electricity
✔✔Why does maturing wine add significantly to production cost? - ✔✔- Barrels: new vs
second-hand
- Oak chips or staves as alternative
- Storage space
- Labor to monitor maturation process
- Loss of cash flow: large amount of money tied up in maturing stock
✔✔Discuss costs involved in packaging - ✔✔- Materials: bottles, closures, labels,
cartons, pallets
, - Heavy or unusual bottles and more elaborate labels (embossed, textured paper) more
expensive
- Bottling line: buy or rent, or send wine to another estate and pay to use their
equipment
- Design fee
✔✔Who carries out the job of moving goods around the world? Give one specialist wine
transportation company - ✔✔Freight forwarders. JF hillebrand
✔✔Why do specialist wine shippers are better suited for wine transportation - ✔✔- Wine
is fragile, subject to hot temperatures, direct sunlight, excessive vibrations
- Specialist shippers take steps to limit the risk of loss/damage, e.g., temperature-
controlled shipping containers
✔✔List ways of transporting wine from the most to the least expensive - ✔✔- Air
- Road
- Rail
- Sea (deep-sea)
✔✔In what condition is air transportation the favored method? - ✔✔- Sending bottles to
competition
- Samples to trade/consumer fair
- Very high value wines
- When deadlines are important (Beaujolais Nouveau for the Japanese market)
✔✔When is road transportation considered cheaper? Why? - ✔✔- Short distances since
it takes the wine directly to the point of delivery
- Through port since the truck can drive directly on and off a ferry
✔✔In what condition can rail transportation cost be reduced? - ✔✔Containerization, i.e.
the good are loaded into a standard container which is lifted onto the back of a truck
and then onto the rail wagon
✔✔What is essential for deep-sea shipment? - ✔✔Containerization
✔✔What is the major downside of sea transportation? - ✔✔- Slow
- Companies must factor in the time when ordering goods, especially for peak trading
periods
✔✔Containers for bulk wine shipping - ✔✔- Plastic flexitanks within standard steel
shipping containers
- Non-flexible ISO tanks
✔✔Compare shipping capability in bottle and in bulk - ✔✔In each container:
- Bottle: 9000-10000L
SOLUTIONS RANKED A+
✔✔List major wine production techniques that have helped wine production efficiency -
✔✔- Modern techniques for grape production, such as better site selection, clonal
selection, improved canopy management, pest and disease control
- Modern winemaking technology
✔✔What caused the significant reduction of wine production in Europe in 2017? -
✔✔Combination of spring frosts, hailstorms and severe heat waves
✔✔What wine regions are affected by long-term climate mate change? - ✔✔- Serious
droughts in South Africa and California
- More reliable sugar accumulation in certain regions in Europe
- New world regions too hot for certain varieties
✔✔How do GIs limit wine production? - ✔✔Define where grapes of wine with specific
geographical names can be grown, thus limiting the amount of wine that a can be
produced
- European PDO dictate what grapes, max yield and winemaking and maturation
techniques
✔✔What are the major aims of GI? - ✔✔- Define wine style produced in a particular
region
- Bring supply and demand more into line and reduce the risk of downward price
pressure
However, with rising demand, there is often pressure to extend the permitted production
area
✔✔How does the PGI system offer greater freedom to producers? - ✔✔- Based on the
vin de pays system
- Still require 85% grapes from a particular geographical area
- Wider range of varietiesNo rules on viticulture and winemaking
✔✔What could producers do when there is an oversupply of wine? - ✔✔- Sell excess at
much lower cost
- Try to find new markets and outlets - takes time, only for someone with market or
distributor
- Sell wine under different label and offer to supermarket, deep discounter, bar or
restaurant as private label wine
✔✔How does the oversupply of wine cause damage to brand image? - ✔✔- If a
producer is forced to sell at lower than usual price
- If retailer orders too much wine and has to lower the price to sell
,✔✔What are the problems associated with undersupply of wine? - ✔✔- Disappointing
clients and constrained relationships. Potential penalty or cancellation of contract
- Increased price, but most issue wines to main distributors on allocation
- Cheaper alternatives from other grape varieties or countries, especially in price-
sensitive markets
✔✔Why do very large companies have advantage when there is an undersupply of
wine? - ✔✔- They have wines at different price points, styles and origin
- They have alternative from within their portfolio
- Sell to different markets - less price-sensitive markets when price increases because
of undersupply
✔✔List major types of costs through the supply chain - ✔✔- Grape growing costs
- Winemaking costs
- Transportation costs
- Importation costs
- Sales costs
- Marketing costs
✔✔Major types grape growing costs? - ✔✔- Vineyard establishment
- Vineyard management
✔✔Major costs during vineyard establishment - ✔✔- Land purchase
- Surveying land to check suitability for viticulture and decide on grape varieties
- Site clearance: removing vegetation, large rocks etc
- Building access roads into the vineyard and between vineyard plots
- Buying and planting vines
- Buying stakes and wires etc for establishing and maintaining trellising
- Artificial drainageIrrigation system
- Protection against weather hazards
- Protection from animal pests: high fences, electric fences, netting
- Buying machinery and equipment
✔✔What factors cause high land price? - ✔✔- Price reflects the land's potential to
produce high-quality fruit
- Scarcity of land: prestigious regions; small GIs
✔✔What works are involved in establishing irrigation system? - ✔✔- Drilling boreholes
- Building reservoirs
- Laying pipes to bring water to vineyard
- Installing pumps to bring up underground water
- System of delivering water to vines
,✔✔What major machinery and equipment need to be purchased for the vineyard? -
✔✔- Tractors
- Spraying equipment
- Harvesting machines
= Garages or sheds to store machinery
✔✔List major vineyard management costs - ✔✔- Labor
- Machinery and equipment running costs: fuel and maintenance
- Vineyard materials: replacement vines and trellising
- Vineyard treatments: agro-chemicals, integrated pest management that requires
regular weather update
- Water: pay authorities to extract water from a river or buy water
- Electricity: irrigation, bird scarers, frost protection, many winemaking equipment
✔✔What kind of vineyards require more labor? - ✔✔- Steep vineyards
- Organic and biodynamic vineyards: additional procedures, highly skilled staff
- Where labor is expensive
- Harvest time
✔✔What costs are involved in winery establishment? - ✔✔- Land purchase
- Cost of building winery
- Equipment purchase (presses, tanks, pipes, pumps, refrigeration, bottling line)
✔✔What sources could funding for vineyard and winery establishment come from? -
✔✔- Vineyard owner
- Bank
- Investors
✔✔List major winemaking costs - ✔✔- Labor: small number of skilled staff full-time;
casual labor around harvest time
- Machinery and equipment running costs, e.g., fuel, maintenance
- Bought-in fruit
- Water, especially cleaning
- Electricity
✔✔Why does maturing wine add significantly to production cost? - ✔✔- Barrels: new vs
second-hand
- Oak chips or staves as alternative
- Storage space
- Labor to monitor maturation process
- Loss of cash flow: large amount of money tied up in maturing stock
✔✔Discuss costs involved in packaging - ✔✔- Materials: bottles, closures, labels,
cartons, pallets
, - Heavy or unusual bottles and more elaborate labels (embossed, textured paper) more
expensive
- Bottling line: buy or rent, or send wine to another estate and pay to use their
equipment
- Design fee
✔✔Who carries out the job of moving goods around the world? Give one specialist wine
transportation company - ✔✔Freight forwarders. JF hillebrand
✔✔Why do specialist wine shippers are better suited for wine transportation - ✔✔- Wine
is fragile, subject to hot temperatures, direct sunlight, excessive vibrations
- Specialist shippers take steps to limit the risk of loss/damage, e.g., temperature-
controlled shipping containers
✔✔List ways of transporting wine from the most to the least expensive - ✔✔- Air
- Road
- Rail
- Sea (deep-sea)
✔✔In what condition is air transportation the favored method? - ✔✔- Sending bottles to
competition
- Samples to trade/consumer fair
- Very high value wines
- When deadlines are important (Beaujolais Nouveau for the Japanese market)
✔✔When is road transportation considered cheaper? Why? - ✔✔- Short distances since
it takes the wine directly to the point of delivery
- Through port since the truck can drive directly on and off a ferry
✔✔In what condition can rail transportation cost be reduced? - ✔✔Containerization, i.e.
the good are loaded into a standard container which is lifted onto the back of a truck
and then onto the rail wagon
✔✔What is essential for deep-sea shipment? - ✔✔Containerization
✔✔What is the major downside of sea transportation? - ✔✔- Slow
- Companies must factor in the time when ordering goods, especially for peak trading
periods
✔✔Containers for bulk wine shipping - ✔✔- Plastic flexitanks within standard steel
shipping containers
- Non-flexible ISO tanks
✔✔Compare shipping capability in bottle and in bulk - ✔✔In each container:
- Bottle: 9000-10000L
