Articles

Transparency, in wine certification

by  |  20-11-2020 ~ 2 Comments

I moved to Berkeley, California to complete a degree in English Literature at the University of California. Coming from a podunk town in the interior of California where most academic challenges top out at giving... more »

WSET vs CMS

by  |  20-08-2020 ~ 26 Comments

Wine education is something not to be undertaken lightly. There's the investment of time and, well, a great deal of money. There's also the issue of choosing the right direction which can be hard to... more »

Woe be the soul who must memorize declared years of Vintage Ports

by  |  13-03-2020

A less glamorous aspect of advanced wine studies–especially when it comes to the of the Court of Master Sommeliers–is the requirement to have at the ready, all the years where Vintage Ports were declared. “Oh... more »

Wine Predictions for 2019

by  |  01-01-2019

In these illustrious times of silly-haired men holding sway over the misdirection of the world, predictions of any kind are slightly less useful than horse sweat. But, as little value as general predictions may have,... more »

Life, under Coravin

by  |  23-07-2018

The Coravin. This little device has changed the face of wine service and storage massively since its creation in 2011. The act of jabbing a hollow needle through the cork in a wine bottle, injecting... more »

Observations from the annual GuildSomm survey

by  |  26-06-2017

If you’ve not seen it, GuildSomm has posted its 2016 salary survey which anyone, even non-subscribers to the site can view. They create this by putting out a poll that people answer anonymously on the... more »

A book review of “Cork Dork” by Bianca Bosker

by  |  13-02-2017

For some time I’ve been reading articles written by Bianca Bosker about certain aspects of the wine world. While positing topics that have no end of potential (such as “Is there a better way to... more »

What is Guildsomm, the “Guild of Sommeliers”?

by  |  20-02-2016

This article was written in 2016 and makes mention of Geoff Kruth founding GuildSomm and being its president. These are facts and while I've left the article as it originally ran, in late October 2020,... more »

Taking the Court of Master Sommeliers Level 2 – Certified Sommelier Exam

by  |  28-12-2015 ~ 20 Comments

You read up on the differences between the WSET & the Court of Master Sommeliers, you went the sommelier path and you passed the CMS Level 1. Thus, you have arrived. Now, is where it... more »

Taking the Court of Master Sommeliers Level 1 – Introductory Exam

by  |  12-12-2015

So, maybe you've read up about the various differences between the WSET & Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) and now you're headed on the CMS path of things. The first stop on this is to... more »