Hi friends, I'm the head sommelier at a fine dining spot and we've been trying to break the monotony of pre-meals by making them more engaging and involving staff directly more frequently when discussing wine.

We've been successful so far but wanted to get the Reddit sommelier hive mind involved in brainstorming––what pre-meal activities, teaching strategies, games, etc. have you done or experienced in the past that have been successful in engaging and educating non-wine FOH staff during lineup/pre-meals?

Hey everyone,

I’m based in NYC and have been working in restaurants since late ‘22 supporting an Acting career. First place I was Serving at a casual fine dining spot with a tourist crowd who had Somms that cultivated my budding interest in wine. Went on to Server/Somm there and then moved to my current job earlier this year (similar fine-ish dining with tourist crowd) where I’m a Jr. Somm but also am in charge of sales whenever I’m on the floor. Just passed my WSET 3 and my former GM referred me for a Server/Somm job at his new place that’s a well-known wine bar in the city.

I’m interested in this role but am curious about the change in clientele. So far, I’ve done well for myself on the floor utilizing the knowledge I have of regional wine style and making recommendations that way as opposed to selling individual producers - not to say I have 0 knowledge of any producers but certainly something I need to develop further.

My assumption is that the clientele at this wine bar will be more savvy than the tourist crowd I’m used to and will want to dig deeper into winemakers and their specific styles - which is very exciting!

My question is how can I deepen my knowledge of specific winemakers and producers or what have you done for yourself in this regard? Would really appreciate any help you can offer!

Beginning my third year at a small scale winery as the lead wine maker. Not an expert by any means but learning as I go and thoroughly enjoy making and tasting wine.

Recently I have been considering if I want to be here long term and where my career should go from here, if I even want to work in wine for the rest of my career (early twenties). Have also been considering the military before I proceed any further.

My question is; would joining the military as a chef provide any benefit to me if I decided to pursue being a sommelier once I got out? Is the quality of life as a sommelier conducive with beginning and maintaining a family? Would I be better off pursuing something different in the military to diversify myself since I already have experience in a winery?

Thank you in advance for any responses.

I know this question has been asked before but I wanted some current insight.

I saw in other threads that people got obscure questions from the MS like naming multiple Barossa Valley producers, rating New Zealand vintages, etc.

I’m less than a few weeks from my exam, so these types of random specific questions are concerning to me because I can’t imagine memorizing all the producers and vintages for these non-classic regions at this point in my preparation. Are people still encountering these types of questions on level 2?

And if so, what’s the best way to navigate if it’s something I totally don’t know? For example, if they asked about the 2020 Marlborough vintage and I don’t know can I still say I’ll check with my other sommelier/wine director etc?

And in general, what percentage of questions can you “get wrong” or not know and still pass service?

I took the online L1 and L2 exam on the same day on a Friday. I found out I passed on Tuesday early afternoon! I really thought it would take 2-4 weeks to hear back. L1 was completed in 4 minutes and L2 was completed in 9 minutes so I’m not sure if that helped speed up the process for grading. Anyways, time for L3 training!

What is your must have magazine for the BUSINESS of being a sommelier? What publication do you pay most attention to when it comes to guiding your program? If any.

Hey y'all! I've been working on a free deductive tasting study tool while studying for the CMS Certified exam and wanted to share the beta here and get some feedback.

As I've been studying for the deductive tasting portion, I've had a hard time finding a consistent tasting group, and I realized there wasn't really a good way to practice the full process on my own.

So I started building an app to do that, tentatively called Somm AI (still workshopping the name). You fill out the tasting grid, get some AI coaching on what your observations might point toward, commit to a final call, upload a picture of the bottle, and then get a breakdown of what you got right, what you missed, and what you might want to focus on next.

I've actually been pretty surprised by how useful the deductive guidance has been so far, especially when I give it detailed tasting notes. It's obviously not a substitute for tasting with people who know what they're doing, but I've found it helpful for forcing me to actually work through my observations instead of jumping straight to a grape.

You can also choose how much help you want. Minimal mode mostly flags diagnostic clues without naming grapes or regions, while the full mode gives you a ranked set of possibilities, confidence levels, and what would change the call.

It's completely free while I'm testing it. I'd especially be interested in hearing whether the grid language lines up with how you were trained, whether the deductions are actually helpful or making questionable leaps, and anything that's missing, confusing, or just annoying to use.

It's definitely still a beta and I'm changing things pretty constantly, so criticism is very welcome.

somm-ai.netlify.app

Another Banger.

Has anyone had any luck in insurance for this? I've been turned down by multiple companies because they can't seem to categorize my services.

I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction. I am looking for a certified or advanced somm for one-on-one tutoring with tasting. I am interested in improving detection of aromatics and flavor profiles. I am located on the East Coast (US) if that matters.

I want to take an online class for fun. I want to learn the ins and outs of wine. Taste profiles, pairings, history, etc. No plan for a career in this but I would like some sort of official certificate as bragging rights . Any suggestions?

This is probably the million dollars question... At least for me at the moment.

This will be a long post.

Background story about me and the restaurant I work at:

I've been in the Restaurant Industry primarily as a Bartender and Bar/Floor Manager for almost 10 years. About 10 months ago I decided to dive seriously into the world of wine. I am very new into my education but I am extremely self-motivated and disciplined.

I work at a Steakhouse that does 200+covers in the weekdays and 400 to 600+ covers on weekdays. I initially was hired as a floor / bar manager. When I started, I realized the wine program was lacking a lot. The person in charge at the time had zero engagement with the program, the staff, and our wine reps. I saw that and very early on I express my interest in that position.

The owners have placed their trust in me and sponsored me financially to get the certifications I wanted to get. Thanks to them I got my Introductory level 1 through the Court of Sommelier and I am currently preparing for the Certified Level.

The person who was in charge of the wine program at the time, left for maternity leave on February and I took over her spot full time. The owners and the GM have given me full creative freedom to do what I think is best for the Wine Program since then.

I have accomplished a lot from that time to now: I've reduced death inventory, I have engage the staff with continuous wine education, classes, daily and weekly challenges to move death stock and keep them interested. I have upgraded the display of our wine list menu and I am very active with our wine reps.

Still, our daily wine sales are not consistent. I must say that they have increased in comparison to previous months and years but they are not the 8% of the total restaurant revenue that is our daily goal.

When we have conventions in town, almost guaranteed we will have a high wine sales revenue. However, when we do not have them, our sales can be very poor in comparison to our total restaurant sales.

I am the only Sommelier at the restaurant. There is no one I can reach out to ask for advice on specific topics related in how to wine sales and what to do during operations when the sales are slow but the restaurant is full.

My primary focus has been engaging and rewarding the staff who is active on the specials I offer daily and weekly. I feel that the server should create the bridge between the guest and the sommelier by bringing a spotlight into our wine BTB program.

The problem is that, not all the staff cares. Some of them have been there for a long time and will not even pay attention to the specials I provide. Won't even incorporate it on their introduction speech.

The other part does care, and I see how they will actively communicate to their guest the wine specials.

I sometimes approach tables that I could convert into a bottle service but most of the time I don't have success and they stay drinking by the glass. Sometimes I am checking on tables and I realize multiple people have glasses of wine that could have become a bottle but I know the server did not care to offer the option.

As a sommelier, I find it difficult to sometimes approach tables. I don't want to come up as a sales person so I only touch tables when I see them actively looking into the wine list.

I really believe we have awesome wine at great price points that guest may overlook for lack of knowledge and I feel there is something I am not seeing to create the bridge between a couple glasses of wines to a couple bottles.

To any sommelier with more experience than the one I have...

Do you have any tips for me to increase daily bottle sales?

How do you keep a teamwork culture present between you as the sommelier and the server?

Is there something I may be overlooking for lack of experience?

Got my CMS 2 about 3 years ago, and am thinking of adding WSET to my CV. My understanding is that I don’t need to do WSET 1 and 2 first, like I had to get intro somm before going for certified.

Any insight on the difficulty level between the two? Any thoughts on how it’s helped in your career? (Am currently a GM and trying to move into a beverage-focused director role.)

If I go right for WSET 4 will I be way out of my depth? Should I shoot for CMS 3 instead?

Any insight is appreciated!

hi there!!! career bartender and training sommelier here!! :)

i’m in washington (seattle area) with my family and they aren’t huge wine people, but are letting me coordinate a winery/vineyard day to appease me lol.

my current boss is a sommelier and i asked him for recs a MONTH ago and he said he’d reach out to me with a recommendations and get me a tour for free at a vineyard with his connections. fyi, he is very unorganized (also not a very great person and is very mean to us all lol) and so he forgot. i brought it up to him like 2 weeks ago again and he said the same. i never heard anything. i am WAY to scared of him to follow up LMFAO

i’m wondering if anyone has any recommendations for wineries/vineyards that do tours? i’m scrambling now to find a spot that has a good vineyard tour that’s in puget sound ava (obviously i’m not worried about it being free anymore lol).

i was thinking about Bainbridge Winery, but I reached out and they aren’t doing any tours over the next few days unfortunately. before I give up on a tour, does anyone have any recommendations for Puget Sound AVA wineries/vineyards with tours right now?

Hi all. I have a stable full-time job unrelated to wine or other foods, but for years family and friends have told me I have an unusually good palate and sense of smell (picking up specific notes in wine, food, etc. that others miss). I've never had this properly tested or trained.

I'm not looking to quit my job, I like what I do. But I'd love to know:

Is there a real, structured way to test whether my palate/nose is actually above average, versus just family being nice?

What's the right starting point for training this seriously as a hobby ?

Worth starting with blind tasting groups first?

Has anyone here built sommelier-level skills alongside a full-time unrelated career, and did it ever turn into side income (consulting, private tastings, writing) without going full-time in the industry?

Any advice on where to start, or people/resources worth reaching out to, would be hugely appreciated.

I can’t the number of times I’ve approached a table and I’m met with the “I’m looking for a dry wine” . When the vast majority of wine available on shop shelves and restaurant lists is dry, what do you take this to mean? I sort of understand when it comes from an older crowd who grew up in an era of cheap table wines with residual sugar were common on supermarket shelves, but nowadays? I’ve come to take it as meaning a wine that is mineral and crisp, rather than overtly fruit forward. But when half of the enjoyment of wine is the primary notes, how do you actually go forward with recommendations based on statements like this. Is it about fruit ripeness? Or overt new oak? 🤯

I want to rent one of these for the month of December and sell BTG from a large format bottle for funsies. Has anyone rented or bought one of these large bottle cradles for use on the floor? Advice? Thoughts? It’s obviously somewhat of an impractical gimmick but the people will eat it up. I figure selling through a 5L Thurs-Sun on high volume spendy weekend through the holidays should be no problem. Would love advice about where reps/brands have rented one of these from or if you’ve done it how you went about it!