The written part is relatively easy. I don't see any problems there. The tasting is a little trickier. Riesling should be fairly readily identifiable, so that's not an issue, but the inclusion of Australian and Austrian bottles makes it harder. Identifying the source of the chardonnay is really tough. I'm going to be putting together a tasting of chardonnay for exactly that purpose, and it's not as easy as one might think - remember the 1976 Paris tasting when the judges got them all wrong.

The paper 2 wines are easier and harder. I know the first group as they're all Rioja. But the cab based wines are hard - especially with the Vasse Felix, which is hard to place but wouldn't necessarily bring Australia to mind. You'd guess that they were cab-based, but it would be hard to call some of the green ones as SA, Chile, Bordeaux, or elsewhere.

The third one is weirdest IMO. The sherries are obvious and wouldn't be troublesome. Who can't tell a manzanilla from an oloroso? Dom Ott is obvious but not the rest of the roses - how to distinguish? Gruner is pretty much only from Austria so that would be at least a partial score. But identifying a pinot grigio? Who does that?

I think those tests are useful if only to see if you know much about what you're drinking. They're kind of fun. But I don't know that you can't do the same thing yourselves, without going thru their program. I wanted to take the exam just for the hell of it but I was told that I would need to pay them thousands for the privilege.