WSET Diploma at Plumpton

22-Jan-09 and 15-Jan-09 - My regular Spain and Portugal lectures at Plumpton College, and what a change: I was last there on the 16th July last year and parked next to the tumbledown 'farm shop' building as usual, squelching across the muddy tarmac to the new winery building. Six months later everything has been transformed. The old building has gone, to be replaced with car parking and a flower bed, and the lecture-room I use has been fitted out with individual tasting-stations with stainless-steel spittoons, running water and light-boards - the full professional kit.

I've been lecturing at Plumpton since the early 1990s and I've seen it go from being a rather muddy agricultural college with a winery the size of a garage to a smart, modern, state-of-the-art educational facility which is, according to Chris Foss, the head of wine studies, having to turn people away from the courses as there are simply too many applicants (Independent 21-Jan-09). Plumpton has been a college of the University of Brighton for the past few years, and offers the UK's only B.Sc. In wine studies, as well as all the courses provided by the WSET from Intermediate Certificate to Diploma.

Another change is the new Wine Business lecturer, Matthew Hudson, who expertly arranged everything from the wines to the laptops, leaving me to concentrate on the presentation. There were between 25 and 30 students (I can remember courses when there were only 7!) and they were really enthusiastic, asking intelligent questions and obviously determined to get the best out of the course. If this is the future of the wine trade then I think it's probably in good hands. And, as a lecturer, there are few greater pleasures than to walk into a wine-merchant and see one of your former students behind the counter.