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.
