Sommelier

Sommelier is a French term for cellermaster or wine steward. Sommeliers have a vast knowledge of the regions, grapes, vineyards and the vintages of an assortment of wines. If you are in an upscale restaurant and want to order some wine but are a little unsure about which kind to get - a sommelier is your answer. Call them over to your table and they will instinctively know which questions to ask to draw the necessary information out of you. What type of flavor are you looking? What type of wine do you like? What food are you expecting the bottle to compliment? With this knowledge they can pull a bottle of wine from the cellar that is specialized to your tastes.

Sommelier Training

Most sommeliers go to culinary school and enroll in as many classes that deal with tasting and wine as possible, including topics related to viniculture - the growing of grapes. Culinary school also gives you a good overall sense of food, what flavors compliment each other, and food service standards. Certification from a culinary school can go a long way towards starting a successful career. After graduating, most sommeliers begin by working under another sommelier's guidance - a kind of apprenticeship. This is the best way to learn all the tricks of the trade including reading customers correctly and up-selling. Sommeliers are people that have an innate taste for wines and know what is good and also what should stay in the cellar.

Job duties and prospects

After the apprenticeship, most sommeliers work independently and enjoy increased responsibility such as choosing the house wine for a restaurant or bar, a task considered very important as it defines the establishments' wine selections. Creating a wine list is a big responsibility and one that takes time and creativity. Sommeliers for top restaurants travel often to different regions to sample from vintners and build the wine list. After 10 years, a sommelier has usually built quite a career as a well-respected wine expert, a "master sommelier". They may be asked to write articles for magazines like The Wine Spectator or work as mentors to up-and-coming sommeliers.

Other duties of being a sommelier include knowing the terminology and being able to educate your customers about wine, whether they want to know terms, regions, tastes or any other questions they may have. Wine enthusiasts can be a demanding audience. After the wine has been selected, opened, allowed to breathe, and the restaurant patron is ready to taste comes the real test. A skilled sommelier is in a position to recommend and serve a part of a meal that can be truly memorable - a fine bottle of wine.