Kyunghwa (Claire) Nam's Personal Tasting Archive

The Deductive
Tasting Navigator

Blind Tasting, a Record of Deduction

Years of blind-tasting notes, kept while preparing for the Master of Wine tasting examination, set down as my own study record in the order deduction moves before the glass. Gladly shared with fellow students of wine.

Compiled by Kyunghwa Nam DipWSET, who passed the Master of Wine tasting examination in 2015.

269
wine profiles
37
worked notes
118
calibration points
518
lexicon phrases
The method

A blind tasting is an act of elimination, not a guess

You don't begin by naming the wine. You place it in a broad structural family, narrow to a grape by its tell-tale markers, then to an origin by climate and winemaking signature. This whole system is ordered to mirror that descent, so studying it rehearses the reasoning itself rather than memorising a list.

1

Family

The widest cut: White, Red, Sweet & Fortified, Sparkling & Rosé, then the structural axis within each.

2

Grape

The variety, read from its defining markers: the aromas, acid and tannin it cannot hide.

3

Origin

Region and expression, settled by climate, ripeness and the winemaking choices in the glass.

What's inside

A complete deductive study system

269 wine profiles
Across four families, ordered by blind-tasting logic, each with its discriminating markers.
37 worked notes
Model answers on real wines, including a full country-of-origin flight, reasoned step by step.
Structure map
Every sweet & fortified style plotted on alcohol × residual sugar: the mental map you reach for.
118-point calibration
Alcohol and residual-sugar reference grid, grouped by style from delicate to fortified.
518-phrase lexicon
A working bank of descriptors, sorted by what you assess: acidity, tannin, body, oak, quality.
Interactive app
A bilingual (EN / 한국어) study app: navigate, drill the worked notes, explore the structure map.
How to use it

와인을 공부하는 분들께, 조건 없이

The app is open to everyone. No sign-up, no charge.

The interactive app

Open to all · 한국어 & English
  • 269 wine profiles, ordered by deductive logic
  • 37 worked notes & the structure map
  • 118-point calibration & 518-phrase lexicon
  • An essay & full credentials
Open the app →

The revision pack

By request · 한국어 & English
  • The complete print-ready study pack
  • Everything in the app, in a deep-study format
  • Shared after a tasting, or on request
  • For DipWSET, MW & MS-track tasters
Get in touch
About
Kyunghwa Nam DipWSET

What you see here is a personal record of years of blind-tasting practice, drawn from many handwritten notes and timed mock-exam papers kept while preparing for the Master of Wine tasting examination. It compresses that training; it does not replace it.

It is shared in the spirit of passing on the reasoning behind the glass: not a list to memorise, but a way of thinking. The Korean edition makes that reasoning available, in full, to Korean tasters for the first time.

This is a personal study record, built while preparing for examination — a guide to reasoning, not a definitive standard. It is not perfect and may contain errors, so please verify against official sources before exams or professional use.

Credentials
  • Passed the Master of Wine tasting examination (2015)
  • DipWSET · WSET Level 4 Diploma
  • Has judged at international wine competitions: DWWA, IWSC, IWC, 5StarWines, Berlin Wine Trophy
  • Produced Les Trois Mains, a white Bordeaux (2016–2020)
  • Italian Wine Ambassador (IWA), Vinitaly International Academy
  • Perfumery Raw Materials & Fragrance Creation Certificate (Level 3), Grasse Institute of Perfumery
  • MA Food Anthropology, SOAS, University of London
  • MSc Wine Business, University of Adelaide
  • BA Korean Language & Literature, Ewha Womans University

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