Vine & Victors

By Jerry Kolins, MD, DipWSET, Certified Sommelier

In a previous blog I confessed that the skill set needed to successfully complete a medical education and obtain the degree cannot match the expectations of the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS).

It is now time to share my experience in trying to enroll in a three-day course intended to provide further education and training needed to advance one’s status from Certified Sommelier to Advanced Sommelier. This advancement has parallels to medical education. Upon graduation from medical school, a physician is not permitted to practice medicine. You need a license. And, to get a license you need further training and experience, i.e., internship and residency. 

Of course, a medical school graduate cannot simply walk into a hospital and say, “I am here to get my internship education.” Instead, you apply. Application includes an examination. The one I took was given by the National Board of Medical Examiners. Hospitals receive the students’ grades and decide who receives further training. Some medical school graduates don’t match with a hospital. These are the graduates who have a degree but no job.

The CMS provides education—just like medical schools. But to take a three day course for further training requires an application. You must be a Certified Sommelier and have at least two years of recent work experience after certification.  Then, submit the name of your boss and owner of the facility that provided your recent work experience. Your boss may be contacted for a recommendation. You must send in your $100 application fee. All this went well.

The Court refused to take my $1900 tuition for the 3 day course. No one is qualified to pay the tuition unless they sit for and pass a one-hour examination of 100 multiple choice questions. Interestingly enough, proving adequate knowledge to receive further training won’t gain you admission into the class. The 3-day course can accept only so many students—just like medical school. Let’s say 100 students will be admitted to the course. You must score in the top 100 from all students taking the examination in North America and South America. Note, the official name of the organization is the Court of Master Sommeliers-Americas.

Let me tell you about exam day. I show up to a testing center, i.e., Pearson VUE testing center. When you walk through the door you receive a friendly greeting and are told to turn off your cell phone. They have lockers to secure all your personal items including your phone, car keys, jewelry, and everything in your pockets. But hold onto your passport or government issued ID. You are politely told you need to be searched.

Pull your pockets inside-out. That would be the front and back pockets, sir. Let me examine your eyeglasses. I am not high-tech so I needed to be told that eyeglasses can be used to connect with the internet. Such an action is grounds for immediate failure. That seems reasonable to me. You are then escorted into a room with about 15 cubicles. Each cubicle has a computer and a set of noise-cancelling headphones. You are videotaped throughout the examination while the computer screen ticks down the minutes and seconds remaining in the exam. You do get a 10-minute warning pop-up, and a final 5-minute alert.

I did all this yesterday. At the end of the examination, I was given a single sheet of paper. All it said was I completed the examination as required. I will be informed in early January if I am qualified to pay tuition and receive additional education. Meanwhile, I learned an important lesson. One can no longer address the challenges of life with a #2 pencil. I will let you know in January whether my journey continues or if I am a graduate who does not get matched to an internship.

January 22, 2026 Follow-up

The Court of Master Sommeliers recently distributed the test scores to candidates who had taken a test as part of their application to take the three-day Advanced Sommelier Course—a prerequisite to Advanced Sommelier Certification. My application was accepted, having answered 74% of the questions correctly. With more than 250 applicants and a course capacity of only 200 participants, fewer than 80% of the applicants were permitted to proceed with education and training. My key remaining requirement is to submit the course tuition of $1,899.

Certainly, my competitive spirit would like to know my percentile ranking. Based on my past experience with the London-based Wine and Spirit Educational Trust (WSET), I believe I scored around the median. In summary, an Advanced Sommelier (AS) certification could be within a three-year reach for me.

If you are curious about the types of questions asked on a sommelier skills assessment exam, here are a few I recall: 

1. The candidate is shown a pair of villages in France. These communes are simply identified by name. You are asked to select the pair of villages that are the shortest distance apart. (I knew 3 of the 4 village pairs.)
2. You are given a list of alcoholic beverages like vin doux naturel, gin, beer, etc. and asked which one contains gluten. (I assumed it was the beer, some of which are made with wheat like Hefeweizen.)
3. You are given a list of 4 or 5 wines and asked which wine would retain its flavors the longest if you did not use a preservation system and just put it in the refrigerator. (The answer would be the wine with highest sugar and alcohol content, like a Sauternes.)
4. You are given a list of wines and asked which one is the most expensive. (This question was especially interesting to me, after having read The Billionaire’s Vinegar: The Mystery of the World’s Most Expensive Bottle of Wine by Benjamin Wallace.)
5. You are asked to link James Busby with the country that recognizes him as a pioneer in viticulture. (I knew he worked in New Zealand but that was not a choice. However, Australia was an option. I guessed Australia, thinking he may have focused on these southwestern Pacific Ocean islands. I subsequently learned that was the correct answer.)

Finally, there were questions on service. For example, you need to know where a sommelier places the cork once removed from the bottle or what a sommelier is supposed to do if the bottle has a screw cap. (Unlike the cork, you never show the screw cap to the guest—unless the guest has asked to see it.)