SAT Rebuts Claim That Test Classist Due To Wine Tasting Portion

NEW YORK—Responding to long-standing criticisms of the standardized test, the College Board released a statement Monday rebutting the claim that the SAT was classist due to its wine-tasting portion. “While we appreciate concerns about this portion of the exam, we’ve repeatedly seen that the ability to sip a grenache and detect notes of black cherries or star anise strongly correlates to success in university settings and beyond,” College Board president Jeremy Singer said in the statement, forcefully pushing back on the suggestion that affluent students benefited from growing up in families who could afford to hire professional sommeliers to tutor them on the specific terroir of France’s Rhône Valley or Loire region. “There’s nothing about tannins or acidity that can’t be learned in a book, as opposed to a family trip to Napa. Put simply, anyone looking to enter higher education should be prepared to show basic reading and mathematical skills, as well as identify the difference between a 1990 and 1993 Vernaccia di San Gimignano.” Singer concluded that many of the section’s questions—such as the difference between crémant and champagne—really just came down to common sense.