Thank you!

So, my background is/was very helpful in getting the requisite information to pass the test. I'm currently the Food and Beverage Director at a luxury hotel here in Denver (one that has its own thread on FT where someone said my restaurant had a great wine list. ) So, our wine list has a Wine Spectator 1 Glass Award (which isn't all that tough to get), and since we sell so much wine at my restaurant, reps are constantly tasting me on new wines every week to try to sell them to me. I probably taste 30-50 wines per week ranging from typical Napa Cabs to single vineyard Barolo and onto more esoteric varietals like Assyrtiko and Lagrein (two of my favorites at the moment). So for me, I didn't spend so much time on studying on my own as much as I've just been paying attention and learning ever since I've had control over wine lists and fine dining restaurants.

So, the Certified Examination (which is Level 2) consists of three parts: tasting, theory, and service. They "blinded" us on four wines -- two reds, two whites and we had to identify color, fruit aromas & flavors, non-fruit aromas & flavors, acid level, tannin level, alcohol level, sweetness level, and then call a country, varietal, and approximate age. I'm pretty sure based on the feedback that I got that I got all four grapes correct (Sauvignon Blanc, Gewürztraminer, Sangiovese, and Shiraz/Syrah were my guesses), but I might have missed the country on the Gewurz. Bluntly, my palate is not always all that sensitive to individual flavors and aromas, but I tend to do pretty well on the "overall picture". The theory was 45 questions on regions, vineyards, producers, winemaking, wine business, spirits, beer, and sake. This is the part where individual studying helped as I haven't tasted a ton of, for example, Franciacorta, but I knew that they specialized in sparkling wines, which was the question that I had about it. The service part was where most students fail. I've been pouring wine either as a server, bartender, or manager for 18 years now, so pouring wine is not difficult. However, while you're doing wine presentations, you're getting berated with questions about what's in certain cocktails, what region certain wines are from, what liqueurs taste like, etc. That's what throws off most of those without as much experience as I have physically in restaurants. It's one thing to practice at home; it's another to be getting crushed on a Friday night and then you're pouring wine to a needy table.

So, this is all a very long-winded way of saying I "studied" for a total of about 4 hours. Someone that doesn't have my background? Probably would take reading at least 3-4 books and then tasting a ton of wine to be able to do the blind tasting portion. The service would be the wildcard where I couldn't even estimate how much time you'd have to put into that. If someone went from "I know Cab is red" to a level of passing this test, maybe 6 months of pretty dedicated studying and a ton of money out of pocket to taste.

I took the test to gauge myself against others more than to advance my career. It doesn't hurt to have certifications obviously, but I'm already, from a career perspective, a lot farther along than a lot of my fellow students who are still servers/bartenders. I never actually cared if I took any of the tests (I know what I know), but my boss bugged me to do it and the company was paying for it so why not? If anyone has an interest in wine and knows a decent amount, I would definitely recommend doing the Intro Class & Exam which is two days of class where you're learning from four Master Somms and then you take a test. If I hadn't been an "advanced student", I would have learned a ton in that class.

Chris