In 2019, the Wine & Spirit Education Trust marked its 50th anniversary, a moment that invited both retrospection and ambition. Founded in 1969 as a modest U.K. trade initiative, WSET had grown into the world’s largest provider of wine and spirits qualifications, serving professionals and consumers across dozens of countries. The anniversary campaign was framed not merely as a celebration of institutional longevity, but as a declaration of intent.
Then–chief executive Ian Harris described the year as a pivot point. WSET, he said, would convene its global network of educators and graduates, honor its past, and—more importantly—inspire a new generation of better-educated wine and spirits professionals who would sustain the industry for decades to come.
The commemorative calendar was full. Early Diploma graduates were profiled. A glossy anniversary book, edited by David Wrigley, traced the organization’s evolution. Wine Education Week debuted in September 2019, drawing more than 100 events across 30-plus countries, with tastings and classes designed to lower the barrier for new wine drinkers. Prominent figures from the U.K., China, and the United States lent their names and faces to the campaign, reinforcing WSET’s global reach.
Alongside the celebrations came promises. WSET pledged to expand access to wine and spirits education in underserved markets, invest meaningfully in digital learning tools, promote diversity and inclusion within its programs, and deepen its offerings in spirits and sake while continuing to refine its core wine qualifications.
Five years on, the balance sheet is mixed.
The pandemic disrupted nearly every global education provider, and WSET was no exception. In-person teaching stalled. International expansion slowed. Emergency shifts to online delivery were unavoidable. Yet the more enduring questions are not about what was paused under extraordinary circumstances, but about what never fully arrived.
Digital innovation, a centerpiece of the 50th-anniversary rhetoric, proved thin. The WSET Tasting Notes app, launched with some fanfare in 2019, quickly faded from regular use. Online courses remained largely static, drawing criticism for dated interfaces and limited interactivity at a moment when newer competitors were rethinking how wine education could function in a digital environment.
On diversity and inclusion, the gap between language and outcome has been difficult to ignore. While the issue has been acknowledged in official communications, WSET’s leadership and educator base continue to reflect a narrow, traditional demographic. Scholarships, sustained outreach programs, and structural reforms have been limited, leaving the sense that inclusion was treated more as a signaling exercise than a long-term institutional project.
There were incremental advances. The launch of a Level 3 Spirits qualification in 2021 addressed a clear market need and was broadly welcomed. But the backbone of WSET’s influence—its Level 2 and Level 3 wine awards—remains essentially unchanged in structure and pedagogy. The curricular innovation hinted at in 2019 has yet to meaningfully materialize.
Geographic access tells a similar story. Growth has continued in East Asia and parts of Europe, where demand and infrastructure already existed. Elsewhere—across much of Africa, Latin America, and even parts of the United States—coverage remains uneven. In the U.S. specifically, several independent program providers have stepped away from WSET, citing rising costs and limited institutional support, a quiet but telling signal of strain within the system.
WSET’s half-century milestone was real, and its contributions to wine and spirits education over five decades are substantial. It helped standardize wine knowledge, professionalize education for the trade, and introduce generations of consumers to structured tasting and theory. That legacy is secure.
What remains unresolved is the future implied by the promises of 2019. Anniversaries create momentum, but momentum fades when vision is not followed by execution. As the distance from that celebratory year grows, so does the scrutiny—not of what WSET has been, but of what it still intends to become.