The Future of Sommelierdom: The Somms Speak
The Future of Sommelierdom: The Somms Speak
This article was inspired by the response to my Instagram post on the Meilleur Sommelier du Monde competition, this past February. It had far more engagement than I expected. And so, I decided to dig deeper.
The rising of natural has upended the wine world. But you wouldn’t know it from last year’s ASI (Association de la Sommellerie Internationale) Best Sommelier of the World Competition. I had been invited to witness the final days of the 2023 competition, including the grand finale, where the top three of the 67 international competitors got to duke it out in front of a crowd of about 4,000. The study needed for the theoretical exams as well as the mock service scenarios is an intense, awe-inspiring task. Contestants had to endure some written arcane “gotcha” minutia (like do they really have to know the AVAs for Michigan?). They were also tested on cocktail making and serving non-alcoholic beverages. And they were tested in a staged scene where guests proffered a mystery bottle to see if it was good enough to serve at a party. (Trick! The bottle had been tampered with in a laboratory and riddled with VA. No one called out the bottle as faulty.) Yet the organization ignored the biggest game changer in the modern wine world. It seems as if future best sommeliers are not required to understand the basics of the natural genre; nothing about sulfur, native yeast, nor what is the problem or beauty of a wine of nature. The ASI is certainly not alone, other mainstream sommelier-based organizations step in line.
I sat there in the darkened drama of the stadium, dolled up in formal attire for the afterparty, I found myself wondering…what was the point?
In the middle of my Paris sojourn, I took dinner at Early June. I love the spot and their rotating visiting chefs. They have a small wine by the glass program and the bottle list is in the sommelier’s head. When wine person, Victor Vautier crouched at the side of the communal table, asked me what I wanted to drink, I said something oxidative from the Jura, and not over 75 euros. He came back with three options. He clearly had a preference and suggested that if I didn’t like it, there would be no charge to me. How could I go wrong? This was informal, yet great service, in a busy, friendly place buzzing with young people. There is something confounding about modern organizations and wine education platforms that require top sommeliers to be schooled in cigar service yet ignore natural wine or how to handle wine service at a casual café or wine bar. This setting and this customer seemed not to matter. How is it possible that the system wants their profession to be linked solely to three-star venues and not bring the love of wine to all?
Perhaps it was ironic that the late legend Gérard Basset was mentioned as a constant inspiration throughout the ceremonies. The sommelier passed away in 2019, but his surviving wife Nina and son Romané govern over one of the few significant foundations promoting the expansion of wine education to a broader, more diverse audience. From the beginner courses to the MS exam—formal wine education requires pots of dough; the Bassets’ foundation seeks to alleviate that burden for those who may not otherwise be able to afford it, a generosity reminiscent of the man himself.
It was the Basset foundation that gave me the opportunity to be a guest of the event in the first place. Basset and I never met, but long ago in 2012, he reached out to me via email after he read Naked Wine. He wrote a letter of congratulations and invited me to his Hotel du Vin. So very sweet. One of my regrets was never taking him up on it. When they asked me to be a judge for a sommelier award given in Basset’s name, of course I was thrilled to oblige. During this weekend, his spirit was everywhere, especially his oft-quoted proclamation: “To be a great sommelier one must love people.”
Since the while experience I’ve been pondering the role of the sommelier and the state of education and competitions.
What was right and what was wrong? Could it be fixed? Did it need to be? So, this past summer, with Basset in mind, I sent out a questionnaire to about 30 sommeliers. There was a healthy mix of experience among them. Some were schooled in the Court of Master Sommeliers, and had studied for competitions, others had taken alternate routes, and some had gone completely rogue. A dozen agreed to take part. Two others wrote me that they were passing on the opportunity because they were concerned about voicing their opinions publicly. Was it me? Fear of the press? Or fear of pissing off the hierarchy should they want to progress up the steps of formal training?
With that final thought, I give you this cast of characters, brave and often wise.
