What's it like to train to be a Master Somm?

Hi Wine Friends,

 I spent this week in Dallas (in an air-conditioned hotel, don’t worry) taking an advanced sommelier course and tasting a whole lot of wine. It was challenging and fun and only slightly exhausting, not to mention inspiring to be with 200 of the world’s top wine professionals. I thought I’d use today to share a little bit about the experience, in case you’ve ever wondered what sommelier training is like.

Can you spot yours truly in the lineup?

Are you a Master Somm?

Ever since the Somm movies came out on Netflix, that may be the most common question I’m asked. And the answer is no - net yet. But I’m working on it 😉 If you haven’t seen the documentaries, they are a fun watch. And the first one focuses on the process for Master Sommelier certification, which is offered through an institution called the Court of Master Sommeliers. It’s the most recognized institution for wine education in the country and it's where most wine professionals start in order to get officially certified as a sommelier.

But there are also other great wine institutions: the Wine Spirits Educational Trust is based in London and focuses more on the business of wine - winemaking, distribution, sales etc - as opposed to solely focusing on restaurants; then there’s other institutions such as the Wine Scholar Guild and National Wine School, that I know less about but I’m sure are great too.

I got certified through the Court when I decided to become a sommelier since that’s the most recognized program. I did the first two levels in a relatively short period of time (start to finish in about 6 months) and then I turned around and started running wine programs in Los Angeles. I look back on that sweet 25-year-old now who thought she was suddenly a wine guru and just think, “Oh honey, you knew nothing.”

The truth is that I didn’t have the best experience with the Court the first time around. Granted, this was ten years ago and the institution has done a lot of soul-searching and reforming since then. At the time, it felt like an old-boys club with a little too much intimidation and pretense for my liking. And that’s the reason it has taken me a decade to go back for their Advanced level. In the interim, I switched tracks to WSET and did their third level and part of their Diploma program (which involves six separate units).

But the Court has undergone an identity shift - especially when it comes to diversity and inclusion - so I gave them another shot. And I’m really glad I did…

How It Works

Just a few of Day Two’s wines

I arrived in Dallas without much information on what to expect. And I should preface this by explaining how the process for the Advanced course works. For the first two levels (Introductory and Certified), there’s no application process - you just sign up to take the course and, if you pass the first one, you can take the certified. But Advanced requires a little more legwork.

I submitted an application last fall and, based on that application, was invited to take a diagnostic test at a local testing center last December. There, I took a hundred-question test on a computer in a monitored room (after a rigorous screening and pat down). In February, I got news that I had passed and was invited to take the course in Dallas. Now that I’ve completed the course, I can take the Theory portion of the exam in February and, when I pass that, I can fly back to Dallas to take the Service and Blind Tasting portion. If you don’t pass both in the same calendar year, you get to start all over! 🙂

So it’s quite the process. But the fact that these three days were just education, with no testing involved, took the pressure off and made it more enjoyable. It was three full days of lectures that spotlighted various regions (Germany, Napa Valley) and different areas of sommelier focus (wine service, list management). And then, of course, there was the blind tasting, which was my personal favorite. Twice a day, we left the lecture hall to split into small groups of eight with one Master Somm as our guide. There, we blind tasted eight wines together.

Shooting Blind?

Flight of eight blind sparkling wines

It was both inspiring and validating to see that my peers were impressive blind tasters, but that all of us have our soft spots when it comes to wines we don’t drink that often. Just like going to the gym, if you don’t use that wine style muscle group, you lose it. So I was pretty strong with the wines that I drink most of: white, sparkling, rosé, orange and light red styles. I don’t drink a lot of full-bodied red wines, which became clear when they were put in front of me blind!

Over the week we tasted almost a hundred wines. And not just tasted mindlessly (a trap I’ve fallen into at trade tastings) but tasted with thoughtful analysis and critical thinking. As we made observations, the adjudicators asked us questions… “What does the acid say about the region this came from? When you consider that alongside the body and the alcohol, what does that tell you about the grape? Where would you put this in a wine program considering its style and quality?”

Overall, it was reassuring to see that my knowledge was where it should be. And that’s not coming from a place of cockiness; but from gratitude for the fact that running wine programs for over a decade has taught me the things I’m expected to know. But I will absolutely still be studying - especially the regions that I don’t drink or sell as much of at Arden (namely: Napa and Bordeaux, but also Australia, South Africa and South America). 

And I definitely need to study up on beer, spirits and sake! In the service portion of the exam, I might be asked to blind taste any of those, as well as requested to mix a classic cocktail while being drilled on the subregions of Scotch or the differences between a Jjunmai or a Junmai Daiginjo sake.

Find Me In the Library

Me in the library (studying a little too hard) on my final night in Dallas

Sounds like I have my work cut out for me over the next six months! If you need me, I’ll most likely be blind tasting. And, if you want to join me, that’s a huge part of what we do in the wine club… not necessarily tasting the wines without knowing what they are, but tasting using the Deductive Tasting method, where you analyze the wine using your senses, then deduce information about the wine from there.

And if you are interested in deepening your own wine knowledge in a much lower pressure environment, I would love for you to check out my course Seven Day Sommelier! I created this course after having done both the Court and WSET and realizing that almost all wine education is geared towards wine professionals rather than wine consumers. And you, the consumer, are the ones winemakers are making their wines for! So my course teaches you much of the same information you’d receive in the Court’s Certified level as well as WSET 2 and parts of 3, but in a more fun, approachable way. And the best part? It’s fully digital so you can do it in your own time with your friends and family!

Join the Wine Club

Join Seven Day Sommelier

As always, wishing you great wine and great company.

Cheers,

Kelsey