Timeline of my certification journey

I’ve had a lot of questions recently about how to attempt different certifications in tandem with others. I thought it could be useful to lay out my own timeline and how I got to this point. It’s all connected!

2017- started in the industry.

2018- signed up for my first certification, Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW), as a way to not be so green in my role. I spent almost a year studying for this and took it the following summer.

2019- getting ready to take CSW, I got a wild hair to check out the Intro to Sommelier class being offered in Durham, NC in July of 2019. I attended and passed it and I was HOOKED. I then took the CSW exam and passed in August of 2019. With some great advice from a few mentors, I decided to blaze straight ahead for the Certified Somm exam. I also took a sake (Certified Sake Professional) and a beer certification (Certified Beer Server) for work, these were great prep for CS as well.

2020- took and passed Certified Somm in Greenville, SC in February of 2020. Another wild hair ensued and I signed right up for WSET 3 Advanced through Capital Wine School in DC while still living in NC. The pandemic hit, and my exam got pushed to July, but by that time I’d moved up to the DC area. Passed with distinction and I still credit CSW being the best foundation to go for CS/WSET 3. I then decided to sign up for WSET Diploma since I was located near the school. Diploma is broken out into 6 units, and typically takes a few years to complete. Not on my watch.. Took D1 (wine production) in December of 2020.

2021- took D2 (wine business) in January, D4 (sparkling) and D5 (fortified) in June, submitted my D6 research paper in July, and took the beast D3 (wines of the world) in October. I also ended up starting and finishing all parts of the Certified Wine Educator (CWE) throughout 2021 and passed that in October.

2022- positive Diploma results and certificate arrived in January of 2022, and MW prep began. I also was working for a spirits company at the time and flew up to Boston to take WSET 3 Spirits. I then knocked out Certified Spirits Educator (CSE). I was still tasting at the CMS group regularly, and decided to apply for the Advanced Somm Course and see if they’d let me in. They did, and I attended what is to this day one of my very favorite wine experiences of this whole crazy ride. Applied for the MW in May/June and was admitted as a Stage 1 student in September.

2023- this “school year” was spent preparing for MW Stage 1 and Advanced Somm. I passed Advanced theory in April of 2023, flew to Napa to sit my MW S1 exam in June, then flew to Phoenix to sit Advanced tasting/service in Phoenix in July. I passed both!

2024- invited to sit the Master Sommelier Theory exam in April. As I wrote about in a previous post, I was not successful, but it was still a great experience. I flew to London in June for my first attempt at MW Stage 2. I had an entire summer to wait for results, so I studied for and passed Champagne Master Level and Italian Wine Scholar through Wine Scholar Guild. In September, I found out that I passed MW Theory (by far the most time consuming part of MS and MW) but still need to pass Practical (tasting).

Goals for 2025? Full send on MS Theory and MW Practical. I cannot emphasize enough the extent to which failure can be a motivator rather than a deterrent- it is such an advantage to have seen and experienced these exams firsthand and to know what to do differently for next time!

Helping out with harvest 2024 in Sonoma on the Wine Champs trip with GuildSomm

First crack at the Master Sommelier Exam

In April 2024, I made my first attempt at the Master Sommelier theory exam. 74 candidates gathered in Atlanta, GA for the one day examination. There were a handful of us who had just passed Advanced the previous year, and many of the candidates were on their second, third or further attempts.

I found out in May that I did not pass. I was neither surprised nor disappointed by this news: I hadn’t put in the work, and really just wanted to get in the room and see what the whole thing was about. Now that I’ve received my feedback and built out my study schedule for the next year, here are my major takeaways:

  1. The results document is tailored to your performance and should be used as your starting point for calibrating where to focus your studies. I was particularly weak in Italy, so I spent the summer tackling the Italian Wine Scholar certification and learned a ton of really great information that will go towards MS prep.

  2. I’ve benefited from mentorship from several MS’s this year whom I had never connected with previously. Every chapter, whether it ends in success or failure, is an opportunity to learn and importantly, to expand your network. I am walking into this next year of studying feeling more supported and also capable than before.

  3. It is not an impossible task. It’s 100ish verbal questions administered within an hour with 2-3 MS sitting across from you in a cleared out hotel room. I blew it up to be this big, inconceivable feat. It was not. It’s doable- you just have to put in the work! There is very little room for error.

  4. This is a personal best. You cannot compare your methods/results to someone else’s. It is you vs. you in there, do what you need to do throughout the year to prepare yourself to meet the moment!

I am already excited for my next attempt in 2025. Onward and upward!

With friends old and new at the Atlanta MS Theory Exam

How I passed the Advanced Sommelier exam

I passed the Advanced Sommelier exam summer of 2023 on my first attempt.

Before I tell you how I did it, let’s back up and walk through what it takes to get here.

There are four levels to the Court of Master Sommeliers: Introductory, Certified, Advanced and Master.

I first sat the Introductory Sommelier course and exam in Durham, NC in July of 2019. It was my first true wine education and I was hooked- I loved the way that the Master Sommeliers made the material come to life. Feeling bit by the bug, I went back home and looked up the next Certified exams being offered near me. There was one in February of 2020 in Greenville, SC, and while I felt so far from ready at the time, I bit the bullet and signed up. I passed and then the pandemic happened, and I focused on completing the WSET L4 Diploma and the Certified Wine Educator (CWE) certifications. A lot of the Court programs were on pause due to the pandemic and I decided I’d come back to it once I’d completed the other certifications.

To sit the Advanced exam, you must first complete the Advanced Course, so I applied for this in the spring of 2022. I went to the course in Dallas, TX in March of 2022 and again just loved the content and the delivery. I had so much fun that week and made some fantastic friends from across the country. Some of us decided to study together on Zoom, and we all submitted applications to sit the Advanced exam in spring of 2023.

Theory was April 2023 and those who were successful in passing (60% required) would be invited to sit the Service & Tasting portions of the exam in July 2023 in Phoenix, AZ.

Here’s how I prepared for each section:

Theory- I created a syllabus based on how many weeks were remaining until the exam date, allowing for a few weeks for review. I tackled 2-3 subjects per week. Me and my study group would divide and conquer. We still have a shared Google drive where we uploaded all of our notes. As I got closer to the exam, I made flashcards from the notes. Notes were primarily gathered from GuildSomm expert guides, the compendium, and various wine books like Oxford Companion to Wine and the World Atlas of Wine.

Tasting- I attended the DC tasting group regularly throughout the year, and bumped up to at least once per week and sometimes twice as exam day got closer. The month prior, the hosts started proctoring individual 6 in 25s for candidates- doing a full verbal tasting of 6 wines in 25 minutes. I probably did upwards of 15 of these in prep and could not have gotten through this piece without the amazing DC wine community. I also recorded myself giving a textbook perfect verbal grid of each testable wine and would play them back to myself in moments of downtime. The CMS grid is about following a system, it takes time to memorize the cadence and make sure you speak to every point available. Repetition helped me a lot here.

Service- by far my biggest hurdle as I don’t work in service! Again, I could not have done this without the DC wine community. They scheduled mock service exams for us and several invited me to come and stage with them. I borrowed a decanting basket from RPM, a tray from Congressional, a decanter from a friend, etc. They showed up for me in a way that they did not have to and helped me overcome this beast of an exam. I also studied a lot of local cuisines in prep for the service portion, and did several practice exams of pouring equations and practicing costing/math.

The above really illustrates the community centric ethos that the Court of Master Sommeliers embodies. That is precisely what I enjoy so much about the pursuit of these exams- you have to collaborate with others. The generosity of time and resources offered from the local DC tasting group was absolutely the biggest reason I was able to take and pass this on my first attempt.