Characteristics You Will Need

While many things about wine can be learned through a variety of course, books and tastings, there are also some innate characteristics that the best sommeliers in the field seem to share. First, you have to be hungry to learn everything you can about wines and to understand this will be an ongoing mission. You also have to have a good sense of smell and palate. In addition, you must be able to analyze the taste of wines and being able to store the impression so you can compare wines from different regions and vintages. Finally, you have to love people and serving them and truly want to make a name for yourself in this area.

Of course you can also forego the master status entirely, too. There are a number of other educational avenues and credentialing wine education programs that sommeliers can pursue more easily. the Culinary Institute of America, with campuses in New York and California, is a highly-regarded training school in this country. Other options include the International Sommelier Guild in Coral Springs, Florida and the American Sommelier Association, which has a home base in New York City. You can also take correspondence classes through the London-based Wine & Spirit Education Trust. In addition to these groups, you can also learn about the art of wine through numerous cooking schools and college programs located throughout the U.S.

What It Costs

The path to be a certified sommelier can be a long and also expensive one. The cost and timeframe varies a great deal depending on what level you desire to achieve, from seeking some informal education to pursuing a top certification level. Nonetheless, in any scenario, you can expect to devote many years to the process.

If you are seeking Master Sommelier status, you need to be of legal drinking age and have a minimum of three years of hospitality experience just to begin climbing up the steep ladder. You can expect it to cost about $2,500 to complete all of the Court of Master Sommelier levels. Also understand that you have to be invited to take the final test for the master’s diploma, and even then it takes most people several tries (at an additional $800 each time) before they pass, if they ever even do. Keep in mind that these costs also don’t include your expenses to study and to try a variety of different wines, which can be extremely expensive, as well as whatever it costs travel to where the exams are being held. So you can double the estimate of what the actual courses cost and realize you may have to spend even more on top of that, too.