Wine certification
Practice test for WSET Level 1
The starting point: grape growing, winemaking, the main styles, and how to store and serve them.
- Exam
- Multiple choice
- Questions
- 30
- Time
- 45 minutes
- Pass mark
- 70%
Start practising
Begin with a free sample: ten WSET-style multiple-choice questions, graded the moment you finish. A subscription then opens the full bank — practice quizzes of 10, 20 or 30 questions across the whole syllabus — along with the full depth of every wine study guide.
Who WSET Level 1 is for
Beginners and anyone working front-of-house who needs to answer customer questions and make a confident recommendation. No prior wine knowledge is assumed.
What the WSET Level 1 exam covers
The syllabus is published as learning outcomes, each carrying a fixed share of the paper. The question counts below are worth knowing — they tell you exactly where your revision time earns the most marks.
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01
Grape growing and winemaking 6 questions
The parts of a grape, the annual growth cycle and ripening, the main climates, what alcoholic fermentation needs and produces, and the steps for still white, red, and rosé wine.
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02
Grape varieties and wine styles 18 questions
The categories of wine and what shapes their style, the principal grape varieties, and the typical characteristics of the wines each one makes.
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03
Storage and service 6 questions
Storage conditions and preservation, serving temperatures by style, opening and pouring, and the basics of food and wine pairing.
How to revise for WSET Level 1
Learn the grapes before the places. At Level 1 the single biggest block of questions — 18 of 30 — is grape varieties and their styles. Get Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinot Noir, and Syrah cold and you have covered more than half the paper.
Know the winemaking sequence in order. Questions often ask which step comes next, so recite the white, red, and rosé sequences until they are automatic.
Do not skip service. Storage and serving temperatures are only six questions but they are pure recall — the cheapest marks on the paper.
Study guides for WSET Level 1
Browse all wine guides →The study material that maps most directly onto this syllabus. Every guide opens with a free overview; the depth behind it comes with a subscription.
The Grape
A study guide to the grape as winemaking's raw material — what the pulp, skins, seeds, stems and bloom each contribute, where sugar, acid, colour and tannin live, and how red and white winemaking use them differently.
Read guide →White Wine
A study guide to white winemaking — protecting delicate aromas from oxygen, pressing before fermentation, cool ferments, lees and bâtonnage, malolactic, sweet-wine methods, and wine faults.
Read guide →Red Wine
A study guide to red winemaking — extraction as the whole game, cap management, fermentation on skins, oak and controlled oxidation, malolactic, and carbonic maceration explained.
Read guide →Chardonnay
A study guide to Chardonnay — the winemaker's white grape, its Burgundy home, and how oak, malolactic and place drive it from steely Chablis to buttery Meursault.
Read guide →Cabernet Sauvignon
A study guide to Cabernet Sauvignon — its accidental Bordeaux parentage, the cassis-and-cedar core, and how it tastes across Bordeaux, California, Australia, and South Africa.
Read guide →Merlot
A study guide to Merlot — its Cabernet Franc parentage, the plush plum-and-chocolate core, and how it tastes across Bordeaux, California, Chile, and Washington.
Read guide →WSET Level 1 — frequently asked questions
- How hard is the WSET Level 1 exam?
- Level 1 is the most approachable of the wine qualifications. It is 30 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes with a 70% pass mark, and it assumes no prior knowledge. Most candidates who work through the syllabus and practise with sample questions pass comfortably.
- How many questions are on the Level 1 exam?
- 30 multiple-choice questions, to be completed in 45 minutes. The pass mark is 70%, so you need 21 correct answers.
- Is this practice test free?
- Yes. The sample is free — ten WSET-style multiple-choice questions, graded instantly. The full question bank, with longer practice quizzes and progress tracking, and the full depth of the study guides, are part of a subscription.
- Do I need Level 1 before taking Level 2?
- No. The levels are not formally sequential for wines — you can enrol directly in Level 2 if you already have some background. Level 1 is worth doing if you are starting from zero and want the vocabulary first.
The other levels
WSET Level 2
The workhorse qualification: grape varieties in their regions, how wine is made, and what the label is telling you.
See what it covers → 03WSET Level 3
The serious one: not just what a wine is, but why it tastes, costs, and ages the way it does.
See what it covers →somepractice is an independent study resource. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or connected to the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. "WSET" is a trademark of the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, used here only to describe the exams these materials help you prepare for. Exam formats are summarised from publicly available specifications — always check the current official specification before you sit.