The prestigious British wine fraternity that honors top-ranking wine connoisseurs is extending its cachet to Americans and other foreigners _ if they can pass a grueling four-day exam. The Institute of Masters of Wine, a staid club of British wine merchants, is actively soliciting foreign winemakers, wine stewards, teachers and others in the fermented grape business who aspire to use the coveted letters ``MW'' after their names. Nine out of 10 candidates fail the rigorous written exams and blind tastings. But for the successful few, MW is the wine world's equivalent of academia's Ph.D. The club has only 131 members and all but 14 of them are men. ``We felt that we were becoming a rather introverted little club,'' said executive director David Stevens. We would rather become an ``internationally recognized body with prestige, weight and influence,'' he said. ``We took a very dramatic decision, for us, to throw open our doors to anyone in the world who could actually come and sit and pass this exam. '' The first step was to open membership to eligible journalists and wine writers. Only one, British wine writer and broadcaster Jancis Robinson, has passed muster. Then, foreigners, including Americans, were allowed to take the exam. So far, no U.S. palate has been admitted, although eight Americans took the annual exam in London last month. Stevens wouldn't give their names, but said they included wine teachers, wine wholesalers and retailers, and sommeliers. They will learn on July 17 whether they have joined the tiny group of foreigners in this unique professional body founded in 1953: Olivier Humbrecht from the Alsace region of France, Australian wine consultant Michael Hill-Smith and winemaker Michael Brajkovich from the Kumeu River winery in New Zealand. ``I think the examination is now much tougher than it used to be, for the very simple reason that the wine industry has become far more complicated,'' Stevens said. He passed on his first try in 1961, when ``basically, if we knew about the wines of France, Germany, a little bit about sherry, port, that was about it. Now you have to know about the wines of the world.'' This year's blind taste included wines from California, Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Lebanon, plus the produce of the more traditional wine regions of France, Germany and Italy. Candidates had to identify the grapes from which the wine was made, where they were grown, and the wine's vintage. Then they had to comment on how the wine was made and aged. Whenever possible, the judges sneak in a bad wine to test their ability to detect imperfections. Stevens said he feels education standards have declined, and that many potential masters of wine are unaccustomed to writing short essays required to test their knowledge of growing and harvesting grapes and the chemistry of winemaking. ``I think that Americans are not used to an examination where they have to express themselves in the written word,'' he said. ``They are much more used to answering multiple-choice-type questions, a tick in the box. To have to produce a very long, reasoned written answer in written form they do find difficult.'' The essay questions test knowledge of all aspects of the wine industry, from planting and harvesting to winemaking chemistry, storing and maturing bulk wine, changing consumer tastes and the trend toward mergers and takeovers in the industry. The open-ended questions range from ``Are bubbles worth a premium?'' to ``The Chardonnay grape has been described as the perfect artist's palette. Discuss and compare methods used in different wine regions to produce the various styles'' and ``How much should a wine reflect the personality and aims of the producer as opposed to the character of the vineyard?''
