* written by Sage Vogel
Anyone who has visited a winery tasting room or two, or seen a wine documentary or read a wine blog (Cheers, I hope you're drinking wine right now, because I am) has likely heard the word 'sommelier.' You may be somewhat familiar with the term and know it roughly equates to being a 'wine expert' and you may know there are schools and guilds that grant the title to worthy individuals.
But, if you're like most people, you likely still have some questions about this funny word and what it means when someone has it on their business card. You may have wondered:
How do I say 'sommelier' without embarrassing myself?
What exactly is a wine sommelier?
What does it take to become a wine sommelier?
If any of these questions have popped up in your head, read on. I think I can help shed some light on the subject having recently earned the title. First, let's go over pronunciation and definition, then I'll tell the story of my journey towards becoming a sommelier.
How to Say Sommelier
The easiest way to pronounce 'sommelier' is to say it like suh-mel-yay in such a way that it rhymes with the word 'say.' Making the association with the question itself "How do I say 'sommelier' should help a little bit.
If you took French in high school and you remember a little bit of it and you don't mind sounding just a little pretentious you can add a very subtle /h/ sound at the end of the word, that's a voiceless /h/ meaning your vocal cords do not vibrate: suh-mel-yay-h.
If you want to be even more pretentious, know that traditionally a female sommelier is called a 'sommelière,' which is pronounced like suh-mel-yai-h with the ending of the word sounding like the word 'air' if you replaced the /r/ with the voiceless /h/. We don't use this word in the US, so don't worry if the difference between it and sommelier is too subtle.
If you're still having trouble with saying 'sommelier', there are many resources online like videos and recordings to help you out. Here's a link to the sommelier wiktionary page, I prefer the pronunciation under the French section: Wiktionary Sommelier
If that's still too difficult, you can almost certainly get away with just saying 'somm.' You might even sound more "in the know." Look at you, abbreviating things like one of the cool kids.
What is a Sommelier
If you scanned that Wiktionary page you know that the word 'sommelier' was originally used to refer to a person in charge of guiding pack animals who carried wine. Things have changed a bit since then. Nowadays, a sommelier (called 'wine stewards' by francophobes) is a professional trained in all aspects of the art of wine service, and there's a great deal involved in that.
A good sommelier knows and can teach wine tasting etiquette, they can serve, entertain and educate, they know the New World and Old World winemaking regions and their specific traditions and styles, they know how to pair food and wine, how to craft a wine list, how to pick out aroma, bouquet and tasting notes and they know when to admit they're not sure about something. That last bit is important, no sommelier knows everything, it's impossible (There's more than 10,000 wine grape varietals in the world, and don't even get me started on Europe's regional quality control laws). Any good sommelier worth their weight in grapes knows they'll always have more to learn, and that's not a reason for embarrassment, it's a respectful admission of the wine world's richness and complexity.
So, who gets to call themselves a sommelier?
'Sommelier' is not a strictly controlled term, but it's highly unlikely you'd benefit from putting it on your resume without certification from a respected Institution, Association or Guild. While its possible to defend the title after years of working in the wine industry, this is quite rare and understandably difficult. Most sommeliers pursue some level of formal education along with other training and considerable work experience in the industry. There are a number of organizations that can provide this education, both in the US and abroad. If you want to become a sommelier, you should start by looking for what certifying bodies are operating in your region of the world.
If you live in the Southwest, have several years of experience in the wine industry and are currently employed therein you can take the Level I: Guild Wine Seminar and Examination given by the International Wine Guild based in Denver, Colorado. Upon completion, given your industry employment is active, IWG will certify you as a Wine Sommelier and as a member of the Guild.
That's what I did, and here's how it went.
How I became a Sommelier
I started working for Vivác Winery in the summer of 2015, right after graduating college. I've known the family for almost my entire life and we've always been close. So close, actually, that I've been drinking Vivác wine since well before I should have been allowed to do so. The job quickly proved to be a great fit for me, but it wasn't until this year that I realized it might actually be the job for me.
I've worked a couple other jobs since my first summer at Vivác, the opportunities came up and Liliana, my tasting room boss and mentor, encouraged me to take them so long as I would return to the Vivác bar for the busy summer seasons. I taught English in southern Spain for a school year and High School Language Arts here in New Mexico the following school year, but summer after summer I returned to Vivác and each time it felt more and more like coming home. This year I didn't renew my teaching contract (despite the tempting offer of a $1 annual raise, come on New Mexico) and I fully invested myself into working for the winery. Along with working behind our bar, I began distributing (building and maintaining business relationships with stores, restaurants and hotels) and also began jumping at chances to help in the winery itself, crushing grapes, harvesting, bottling, drinking, etc. I learned a lot, and fast, which is good because when I saw that IWG had a seminar earlier this month for first level sommelier certification, I knew I really wanted to take it and I knew I'd have to employ all I'd learned about wine to pass.
The International Wine Guild has been in operation for over twenty years. It is a standalone wine vocational school that provides college level wine education through 25 different professional wine education courses. The Guild offers technical diplomas (Level I, Level II: Advanced, Level III: Master) and other certification programs to professionals in the wine industry and serious enthusiasts. It seemed fitting for me to pursue my certification from the IWG not only because of its prestige and locality, but also because three of the Vivac founders are certified through their program. They know us, we know them, it's a healthy relationship to have and maintain. I highly recommend them to anyone in our region who is interested in kicking their wine education into a higher gear.
The Level I: Guild Wine Seminar with IWG is a two day intensive seminar followed by a final exam. Provided a student is successful in the class and the exam they are welcomed as a Guild member and are provided with either a Professional or Non-Professional Award title. A professional chef is eligible for the Chef of Wine Arts title, while other professionals in the industry may pursue either Wine Manager or Wine Sommelier titles. Anyone not employed in the industry may receive the title Wine Cellar Manager. I, of course, wanted to be a Wine Sommelier.
Day 1 of the seminar had class beginning at 8:30 AM. The course is structured to accommodate as many as 75 individuals but I was unusually fortunate to have scheduled with a smaller group of less than ten that was a good mix of both professional and non-professional classmates.
Our first module of the day provided a broad but thorough rundown of Key Terms and Concepts we would need as a foundation for the rest of the course. Efficiently and methodically our educator, Senior Wine Instructor Nicholas Post, educated us on essential wine categories and the rules designating them, basic winemaking for reds and whites, the world's "noble grapes," basic chemical equations for fermentations, acid transformations and other basic chemistry, fundamental understandings of Body (Acids, Alcohol, Extract [flavor intensity], Tannins, Viscosity) and Structure/Character (Dryness, Body) and correct serving order and temperature.
Nicholas immediately proved an excellent and obviously seasoned instructor. Looking back and reviewing our course, I'm still surprised how manageable he made assimilating so much information so quickly. It was challenging, but not frustrating. Not everything we went over was new for me, but a lot of the content filled gaps in my prior knowledge that really helped me with what was to come.
The next module focused on Old World wines, and Nicholas began the lecture by reminding us that when he was done, we'd get to start tasting, which is really always the best part when it comes to wine, right? Drinking it?
The module started with a lesson on the EU's international Quality Classification regulations, essentially what winemakers are required to do in order to insure the quality and integrity of their product. I won't get into it, but I will say that the EU is considerably more strict than the New World's wine governing bodies and they focus a lot more on terroir (the growing environment).
Given the time constraints, IWG focused on France and Italy's wine for their level one seminar, a wise choice given their history and influence on winemaking in the world today. Together we explored these countries' regulations and the most important regions, including Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Tuscany and Piedmont.
When the wines came out that's when the fun really began. Nicholas' associate Tom (a Level II Sommelier) poured us our French wines (including my first Chateaneuf-du-Pape!) and we pulled out our tasting analysis sheets. Nicholas walked us through analyzing the wine by instructing us how to discern Clarity, Color/Hue, Aroma and Bouquet in nose and mouth, Sweetness, Acidity, Body, flavor notes, possible flaws, mouth attack, flavor profiles, finish, overall impressions and finally possible food pairings.
Then came Italy with a Soave Classico, Cortese di Gavi, Barolo, Amarone della Valpolicella, and several others. Fun to say, fun to drink!
Day 2 started at 8:30 AM sharp again with a module on New World Wine. We went over comparisons between the Old and New World wines, learning, to put it very, very briefly, that Old World wines tend to focus more on Terroir and Acidity, while New World wines are all about Fruit and Alcohol. In the Old World winemaking is art, in the New World winemaking is science.
There was a lot to learn and a lot to taste. I won't spoil it for any of you who might be interested in the course but our last tasting flight was a blind tasting, inspired by the live taste test that Master Sommelier candidates have to take, in which we had to discern the differences between same varietal wines cultivated and produced in different parts of the world. It was the perfect way to really drive home the subtle but notable differences in wine styles and profiles.
The seminar concluded with all classmates and the two IWG instructors being friends, we swapped business cards and wine tales, and made toasts over an exquisite champagne. I think we all parted ways with a renewed interest in the craft and a sustained thirst for its product.
I took my exam a little over a week later, after studying and re-studying our takeaway texts and my own notes from the seminar. The exam covered nearly everything we learned in 50 minutes with 50 questions. It was challenging and comprehensive, and though I wish I had studied more just to relieve some of the stress, I'm proud to say I walked away with a 90% grade, a genuine sense of accomplishment and what I can undoubtedly say is the well-earned title of sommelier.
There are two more levels for me to complete if I want to become a master sommelier, and it's definitely in my plans. A classmate I connected with jumped into the next level immediately after the Level I Seminar and she told me afterwards that it was considerably more intense but also even more rewarding. I'm looking forward to it, especially since I've already been having so much fun flexing my new knowledge for visitors to our tasting room.
Earning my title as a Wine Sommelier from the International Wine Guild proved an amazing experience that I know I will always look back on with fondness and pride. Through it all I learned a great deal but most importantly it really helped evolve my perception of Vivác Winery, our products and our founders. There are a lot of things we do here that we don't have to do, according to American law, but we do anyway because quality is our first tenet and (this is the really important part) despite these self-imposed challenges we are still successful and managing to grow.
The truth is that the odds are stacked against us, and any small winery that gets built from the ground up. We're a relatively small operation, we're local, we're family-owned and operated, we're 100% New Mexican and all the wine we sell is wine we make, we're quality-focused, we're internationally recognized and we're actually doing this thing without having to compromise our integrity or our product!
Learning all about the backbone of this business made me realize, in specific detail, why our winery is so special. It made me appreciate in a much more intimate way how difficult it must have been for our four founders to get this winery on its feet and keep it there. This is a very special company I'm blessed to be a part of, and I understand that better now more than ever before.
I'm looking forward to what happens in the years to come, both as a fledgling sommelier and as a seasoned Vivác employee. I'm looking forward to learning more, to teaching more, to tasting more and to toasting more and I hope this post may inspire you to do the same.
But, if you're like most people, you likely still have some questions about this funny word and what it means when someone has it on their business card. You may have wondered:
How do I say 'sommelier' without embarrassing myself?
What exactly is a wine sommelier?
What does it take to become a wine sommelier?
If any of these questions have popped up in your head, read on. I think I can help shed some light on the subject having recently earned the title. First, let's go over pronunciation and definition, then I'll tell the story of my journey towards becoming a sommelier.
How to Say Sommelier
The easiest way to pronounce 'sommelier' is to say it like suh-mel-yay in such a way that it rhymes with the word 'say.' Making the association with the question itself "How do I say 'sommelier' should help a little bit.
If you took French in high school and you remember a little bit of it and you don't mind sounding just a little pretentious you can add a very subtle /h/ sound at the end of the word, that's a voiceless /h/ meaning your vocal cords do not vibrate: suh-mel-yay-h.
If you want to be even more pretentious, know that traditionally a female sommelier is called a 'sommelière,' which is pronounced like suh-mel-yai-h with the ending of the word sounding like the word 'air' if you replaced the /r/ with the voiceless /h/. We don't use this word in the US, so don't worry if the difference between it and sommelier is too subtle.
If you're still having trouble with saying 'sommelier', there are many resources online like videos and recordings to help you out. Here's a link to the sommelier wiktionary page, I prefer the pronunciation under the French section: Wiktionary Sommelier
If that's still too difficult, you can almost certainly get away with just saying 'somm.' You might even sound more "in the know." Look at you, abbreviating things like one of the cool kids.
What is a Sommelier
If you scanned that Wiktionary page you know that the word 'sommelier' was originally used to refer to a person in charge of guiding pack animals who carried wine. Things have changed a bit since then. Nowadays, a sommelier (called 'wine stewards' by francophobes) is a professional trained in all aspects of the art of wine service, and there's a great deal involved in that.
A good sommelier knows and can teach wine tasting etiquette, they can serve, entertain and educate, they know the New World and Old World winemaking regions and their specific traditions and styles, they know how to pair food and wine, how to craft a wine list, how to pick out aroma, bouquet and tasting notes and they know when to admit they're not sure about something. That last bit is important, no sommelier knows everything, it's impossible (There's more than 10,000 wine grape varietals in the world, and don't even get me started on Europe's regional quality control laws). Any good sommelier worth their weight in grapes knows they'll always have more to learn, and that's not a reason for embarrassment, it's a respectful admission of the wine world's richness and complexity.
So, who gets to call themselves a sommelier?
'Sommelier' is not a strictly controlled term, but it's highly unlikely you'd benefit from putting it on your resume without certification from a respected Institution, Association or Guild. While its possible to defend the title after years of working in the wine industry, this is quite rare and understandably difficult. Most sommeliers pursue some level of formal education along with other training and considerable work experience in the industry. There are a number of organizations that can provide this education, both in the US and abroad. If you want to become a sommelier, you should start by looking for what certifying bodies are operating in your region of the world.
If you live in the Southwest, have several years of experience in the wine industry and are currently employed therein you can take the Level I: Guild Wine Seminar and Examination given by the International Wine Guild based in Denver, Colorado. Upon completion, given your industry employment is active, IWG will certify you as a Wine Sommelier and as a member of the Guild.
That's what I did, and here's how it went.
How I became a Sommelier
I started working for Vivác Winery in the summer of 2015, right after graduating college. I've known the family for almost my entire life and we've always been close. So close, actually, that I've been drinking Vivác wine since well before I should have been allowed to do so. The job quickly proved to be a great fit for me, but it wasn't until this year that I realized it might actually be the job for me.
I've worked a couple other jobs since my first summer at Vivác, the opportunities came up and Liliana, my tasting room boss and mentor, encouraged me to take them so long as I would return to the Vivác bar for the busy summer seasons. I taught English in southern Spain for a school year and High School Language Arts here in New Mexico the following school year, but summer after summer I returned to Vivác and each time it felt more and more like coming home. This year I didn't renew my teaching contract (despite the tempting offer of a $1 annual raise, come on New Mexico) and I fully invested myself into working for the winery. Along with working behind our bar, I began distributing (building and maintaining business relationships with stores, restaurants and hotels) and also began jumping at chances to help in the winery itself, crushing grapes, harvesting, bottling, drinking, etc. I learned a lot, and fast, which is good because when I saw that IWG had a seminar earlier this month for first level sommelier certification, I knew I really wanted to take it and I knew I'd have to employ all I'd learned about wine to pass.
The International Wine Guild has been in operation for over twenty years. It is a standalone wine vocational school that provides college level wine education through 25 different professional wine education courses. The Guild offers technical diplomas (Level I, Level II: Advanced, Level III: Master) and other certification programs to professionals in the wine industry and serious enthusiasts. It seemed fitting for me to pursue my certification from the IWG not only because of its prestige and locality, but also because three of the Vivac founders are certified through their program. They know us, we know them, it's a healthy relationship to have and maintain. I highly recommend them to anyone in our region who is interested in kicking their wine education into a higher gear.
The Level I: Guild Wine Seminar with IWG is a two day intensive seminar followed by a final exam. Provided a student is successful in the class and the exam they are welcomed as a Guild member and are provided with either a Professional or Non-Professional Award title. A professional chef is eligible for the Chef of Wine Arts title, while other professionals in the industry may pursue either Wine Manager or Wine Sommelier titles. Anyone not employed in the industry may receive the title Wine Cellar Manager. I, of course, wanted to be a Wine Sommelier.
Day 1 of the seminar had class beginning at 8:30 AM. The course is structured to accommodate as many as 75 individuals but I was unusually fortunate to have scheduled with a smaller group of less than ten that was a good mix of both professional and non-professional classmates.
Our first module of the day provided a broad but thorough rundown of Key Terms and Concepts we would need as a foundation for the rest of the course. Efficiently and methodically our educator, Senior Wine Instructor Nicholas Post, educated us on essential wine categories and the rules designating them, basic winemaking for reds and whites, the world's "noble grapes," basic chemical equations for fermentations, acid transformations and other basic chemistry, fundamental understandings of Body (Acids, Alcohol, Extract [flavor intensity], Tannins, Viscosity) and Structure/Character (Dryness, Body) and correct serving order and temperature.
Nicholas immediately proved an excellent and obviously seasoned instructor. Looking back and reviewing our course, I'm still surprised how manageable he made assimilating so much information so quickly. It was challenging, but not frustrating. Not everything we went over was new for me, but a lot of the content filled gaps in my prior knowledge that really helped me with what was to come.
The next module focused on Old World wines, and Nicholas began the lecture by reminding us that when he was done, we'd get to start tasting, which is really always the best part when it comes to wine, right? Drinking it?
The module started with a lesson on the EU's international Quality Classification regulations, essentially what winemakers are required to do in order to insure the quality and integrity of their product. I won't get into it, but I will say that the EU is considerably more strict than the New World's wine governing bodies and they focus a lot more on terroir (the growing environment).
Given the time constraints, IWG focused on France and Italy's wine for their level one seminar, a wise choice given their history and influence on winemaking in the world today. Together we explored these countries' regulations and the most important regions, including Bordeaux, Rhone Valley, Tuscany and Piedmont.
When the wines came out that's when the fun really began. Nicholas' associate Tom (a Level II Sommelier) poured us our French wines (including my first Chateaneuf-du-Pape!) and we pulled out our tasting analysis sheets. Nicholas walked us through analyzing the wine by instructing us how to discern Clarity, Color/Hue, Aroma and Bouquet in nose and mouth, Sweetness, Acidity, Body, flavor notes, possible flaws, mouth attack, flavor profiles, finish, overall impressions and finally possible food pairings.
Then came Italy with a Soave Classico, Cortese di Gavi, Barolo, Amarone della Valpolicella, and several others. Fun to say, fun to drink!
Day 2 started at 8:30 AM sharp again with a module on New World Wine. We went over comparisons between the Old and New World wines, learning, to put it very, very briefly, that Old World wines tend to focus more on Terroir and Acidity, while New World wines are all about Fruit and Alcohol. In the Old World winemaking is art, in the New World winemaking is science.
There was a lot to learn and a lot to taste. I won't spoil it for any of you who might be interested in the course but our last tasting flight was a blind tasting, inspired by the live taste test that Master Sommelier candidates have to take, in which we had to discern the differences between same varietal wines cultivated and produced in different parts of the world. It was the perfect way to really drive home the subtle but notable differences in wine styles and profiles.
The seminar concluded with all classmates and the two IWG instructors being friends, we swapped business cards and wine tales, and made toasts over an exquisite champagne. I think we all parted ways with a renewed interest in the craft and a sustained thirst for its product.
I took my exam a little over a week later, after studying and re-studying our takeaway texts and my own notes from the seminar. The exam covered nearly everything we learned in 50 minutes with 50 questions. It was challenging and comprehensive, and though I wish I had studied more just to relieve some of the stress, I'm proud to say I walked away with a 90% grade, a genuine sense of accomplishment and what I can undoubtedly say is the well-earned title of sommelier.
There are two more levels for me to complete if I want to become a master sommelier, and it's definitely in my plans. A classmate I connected with jumped into the next level immediately after the Level I Seminar and she told me afterwards that it was considerably more intense but also even more rewarding. I'm looking forward to it, especially since I've already been having so much fun flexing my new knowledge for visitors to our tasting room.
Earning my title as a Wine Sommelier from the International Wine Guild proved an amazing experience that I know I will always look back on with fondness and pride. Through it all I learned a great deal but most importantly it really helped evolve my perception of Vivác Winery, our products and our founders. There are a lot of things we do here that we don't have to do, according to American law, but we do anyway because quality is our first tenet and (this is the really important part) despite these self-imposed challenges we are still successful and managing to grow.
The truth is that the odds are stacked against us, and any small winery that gets built from the ground up. We're a relatively small operation, we're local, we're family-owned and operated, we're 100% New Mexican and all the wine we sell is wine we make, we're quality-focused, we're internationally recognized and we're actually doing this thing without having to compromise our integrity or our product!
Learning all about the backbone of this business made me realize, in specific detail, why our winery is so special. It made me appreciate in a much more intimate way how difficult it must have been for our four founders to get this winery on its feet and keep it there. This is a very special company I'm blessed to be a part of, and I understand that better now more than ever before.
I'm looking forward to what happens in the years to come, both as a fledgling sommelier and as a seasoned Vivác employee. I'm looking forward to learning more, to teaching more, to tasting more and to toasting more and I hope this post may inspire you to do the same.
-Cheers from the Vivac Winery Family!
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