Should you by any chance manage to pass the challenging final Master of Wine exams – and Richard's recent account relates only to the exams at the end of the first year of preparatory studies (groan) – you may not call yourself an MW nowadays until you have had a written dissertation approved. Recent topics have included the following:
Can Vins de Pays Charentais compete on price and quality in the UK market?
The effect of altitude on Malbec in Mendoza, Argentina
UK market attitudes towards brut nature Champagne
A couple of these dissertations remind me a little of Julia's...