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To become a sommelier, complete a certified programme (CMS, WSET, ASI) then build experience in the restaurant industry. The full path takes 3 to 7 years depending on your target level.
WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) is the world's most recognised wine and spirits education body. Founded in London in 1969, it offers certifications across 4 levels, from beginner to expert professional.
WSET Level 2 is the sweet spot for any wine lover who wants to go beyond casual sipping. It covers the major grape varieties, key regions, and winemaking styles across the globe. With around 28 hours of study and a 50-question multiple-choice exam, it is very achievable if you put in the tasting practice.
Basic wine vocabulary covers appearance (colour), nose (aromas), palate (attack, mid-palate, finish) and structure (acidity, tannins, body, alcohol). Mastering these terms is enough to describe any wine.
A complex wine is one that keeps revealing new flavours and aromas the longer you pay attention. Instead of tasting like 'just fruit,' it layers multiple sensations -- spice, earth, flowers, minerals -- that shift and evolve in the glass. Complexity is widely seen as a hallmark of quality.
An elegant wine is all about balance and restraint. Nothing shouts -- the acidity, fruit, tannins, and alcohol all play nicely together. Think of a perfectly tailored suit versus a flashy costume. Pinot Noir from Burgundy and Riesling from Alsace are textbook examples of elegance.
Blind tasting means evaluating a wine without knowing its identity (label hidden). The method eliminates brand and price bias, allowing an objective assessment based purely on sensory qualities.
To identify wine aromas, train your nose using the SAT method: Smell (first nose), Agitate (swirl), Try again (second nose). Classify aromas into three families: fruity, floral/vegetal, and spicy/oaky.
Reductive nose is that funky smell -- think struck match, rotten egg, or burnt rubber -- that hits you when you first open certain bottles. It happens when wine has had too little oxygen exposure, allowing sulphur compounds to build up. The good news? A quick decant usually sorts it out.
An oenologist is the wine scientist (winemaking), a sommelier is the service expert (restaurant), and a wine merchant (caviste) is the specialist retailer (sales and advice). Three complementary professions around the same product.
The wine aroma wheel is a circular chart that helps you put words to what your nose is picking up. Created by Ann C. Noble at UC Davis in 1984, it organises aromas from broad categories (fruity, floral, spicy) on the inside to specific descriptors (blackcurrant, rose, black pepper) on the outside. Start in the centre and work outward.
Great tasting notes capture three things: what the wine looks like, what it smells like, and how it tastes. Follow a consistent structure -- appearance, nose, palate, conclusion -- and write your impressions immediately, while the wine is still in your mouth. You do not need to be fancy; you need to be specific.
SAT stands for Systematic Approach to Tasting, and it is the tasting framework used by the WSET. It breaks wine analysis into four steps -- appearance, nose, palate, conclusion -- each with a fixed set of descriptors. It is designed to remove guesswork and give you a repeatable method for evaluating any wine.
Wine faults are off-flavours or aromas caused by contamination, microbial spoilage, or winemaking errors. The most common ones are cork taint (TCA), oxidation, reduction, volatile acidity (vinegar), Brettanomyces (barnyard), and unwanted refermentation. Roughly 2-5% of cork-sealed bottles are estimated to be corked.
Cork taint is that damp cardboard, musty basement smell that ruins an otherwise good bottle. It is caused by a molecule called TCA (2,4,6-trichloroanisole), which forms when mould in the cork reacts with chlorine-based cleaning products. About 2-5% of cork-sealed bottles are affected, and there is no way to fix it once it is there.
A maderized wine is one that has been cooked by heat and gone prematurely brown and oxidised. It gets its name from Madeira, where deliberate heating is part of the winemaking process. In any other wine, though, it is a fault. Look for amber or brown colours where you would expect freshness, and aromas of stewed fruit, caramel, and stale nuts.
An effective wine list covers 40-80 references organised by style (sparkling, whites, rosés, reds, desserts), with 3 price tiers and seasonal rotation. The target: minimum 30 % gross margin.
Building a restaurant wine list typically costs between EUR 3,000 and EUR 15,000 depending on your concept. A casual bistro can start with 30-40 wines and around EUR 3,000-5,000 in stock, while a fine-dining venue might need 80-150 references and EUR 10,000-15,000 upfront. Monthly restocking usually runs 20-30% of your initial investment.
In Belgium, the standard restaurant markup is 2.5-3.5 times the ex-VAT purchase price (average coefficient: 3). A wine bought at 10 EUR ex-VAT will be listed at 25-35 EUR including tax.
Training restaurant staff on wine comes down to three pillars: weekly 30-minute tastings of wines on your list, simple tasting cards for each reference (grape, region, pairings), and mentoring from the sommelier or floor manager. An annual budget of EUR 500-2,000 in training can turn your service team into a genuine sales force.