WSET Level 1 · Exam guide

What's actually on the WSET Level 1 Award in Wines exam

If you've never sat a WSET exam before, here's what to expect on exam day — before you get into practice questions.

The WSET Level 1 Award in Wines is the entry point into the WSET wine qualifications. It assumes no prior wine knowledge, and it's designed to be finished in a single day of study for most candidates, including the exam itself.

Format

The exam is 30 multiple-choice questions, to be completed in 45 minutes. Each question has one correct answer among the options given — there's no negative marking, so an educated guess is always better than leaving a question blank. You need 70% correct to pass, and the result is a straightforward pass or fail — there's no merit or distinction grade at this level (that starts at Level 2).

What it covers

Level 1 is built around a simple idea: understand a wine well enough to talk about it, serve it, and pair it with food. Broadly, expect questions from across these areas:

How wine is made

The basic journey from grape to bottle — the difference between how red, white, rosé, and sparkling wines are produced, and why those production choices affect what ends up in the glass.

Grape varieties and wine styles

The major grape varieties you're likely to see on a wine list or a supermarket shelf, and the general style each one tends to produce — light versus full-bodied, dry versus sweet, still versus sparkling.

Reading a wine label

What the information on a label is actually telling you — grape variety, region, vintage, alcohol level — and how to use it to predict what's in the bottle before you open it.

Storing and serving wine

Practical service knowledge: appropriate serving temperatures for different styles, how to open and pour, and how storage conditions affect a wine over time.

Food and wine pairing

General principles for matching a wine's weight, acidity, and sweetness to a dish, rather than memorizing fixed pairings.

How to use this alongside Cellar Prep

Cellar Prep's Level 1 Wines module mirrors this same shape: a large bank of original multiple-choice questions across these topics, sampled into a 30-question, 45-minute practice exam with the same 70% pass mark, so a practice run feels like the real thing.