I know Courtney Keeling, one of the women whose story is shared late in the article. She was a somm at Grailey’s in Dallas for a while. She is incredibly kind, knowledgeable, and very good at her job. I’m glad to see her speak out. She did not deserve the harassment or, rather, I should say does not deserve the harassment. It has got to be a brutally tough job being an attractive young woman around a predominately male clientele with alcohol and money involved. And that’s sad to say.
I can certainly understand how one might feel/think the way that you do, but the issues you mention seem to be much more prevalent in the CMS than in WSET. I hesitate to say non-existent, as I wouldn’t say that about any organization these days. I know that in the restaurant industry very few in the US/CAN pursue WSET/MW, but my experience has been that outside NA WSET/MW are the more prevalent/recognized credential. However, this is purely anecdotal. If I’m purely to speculate, might a portion of this issue have some root with the systemic harassment/misogyny in the restaurant industry as a whole?
WSET/MW are set up much more as an educational credential rather than an entry into a career or position. There is really next to no “gate keeping” as you call it. As far as I can recall, every single instructor/proctor I’ve had has been female.
My opinion is that in nearly every field there must be some sort of standardized credential to demonstrate a certain level of knowledge on a subject. What that should look like, I do not know. However, it definitely seems clear the CMS has demonstrated that its reputation is not dissimilar to that of the Boy Scouts and the Catholic Church. Perhaps in some circles Geoff Kruth will be mentioned in the same breath as Harvey Weinstein.
I certainly understand your comments. By no means am I advocating that the only successful path forward for those in wine is through an educating/accrediting body. One need look towards people like Tahiirah Habibi and their success in the absence of a certification to highlight that. Nor does it de facto mean that those that have gone through CMS understand what it takes to run a beverage program, like you noted, many accredited somms aren’t necessarily good selling wine and communicating their knowledge to others.
I’d have to listen to the conversation again, but from my recollection Bobby Stuckey wasn’t specifically defending and promoting the virtues of CMS and saying all service people should go through it. Rather, he was speaking that as an employer, the most important thing for him was that not only that people knew about wine, but that they also understood the business of wine. As you noted, it’s one thing to know about soil types, it’s another to translate your knowledge into selling and promoting a restaurant’s beverage program. To that end, from his experience hiring people, people that have gone through some form of wine accreditation, whether CMS, MW, WSET, or other, tended to have a greater understanding of the business side of wine. As I noted earlier though, that’s not to mean that an accreditation is the sole path forward.
I do see a need/space for an organisation focused on teaching and promoting good hospitality and helping people learn not only about things like obscure lieu-dit and varietals, but equally, if not mores, helping them understand customer service and the business of selling wine. What that exactly looks like, I’m not entirely sure. I do think that regardless of what that looks like, aside from just teaching about wine, there also needs to be a strong focus on service, hospitality and understanding the business of buying and selling wine. And for sure one that does not require one to invest a disproportionately large amount of money on it.
I don’t doubt it. Thankfully more and more people are becoming aware of these types of actions and speaking out about it. A bit of bummer on this. In the past I have enjoyed some of his Lost & Found wines. Regrettably, it seems going forward I’ll no longer be a buyer of them.
There is reasonably widespread adoption of the WSET/MW and it does have a history in Canada, but because of the Somm films and general “Somm culture” the CMS has found more of a footing and following as of late. What I appreciate about the MW stream is, like you said, that it’s more about education than parlour tricks and memorization (though the DipWSET has plenty of that!) and seeing/writing about wine in much more of a cultural, social, and historical context.
The fact is that there are incredibly few true “Somm” jobs. Most sommeliers are also restaurant GMs, and the pumping-out of Certified Sommeliers will inevitably reach a glut if it hasn’t already. But, of course, that encourages folks to go for their Advanced, which is a ton more work, time, and, of course, money. I’m not sure how you can go about creating something that shows proficiency while ignoring the pitfalls, but I hope there’s a genuine attempt at it.
Read the article. Have there been any resignations from master sommeliers in response to this on social media?
Don’t know if there has been any CMS resignations so far (Geoff Kruth did leave GuildSomm), but CMS did put out a statement:
Feels pretty hollow IMHO
And before the article, they had no scintilla of an inkling…
(And RBS never heard of subprime CDOs before the bailout.)
A few months ago, shortly after the spate of resignations from CMS as a response to BLM, I asked Bobby Stuckey what he thought about that sort of response since one of his protoge’s was one of those who resigned. I didn’t anticipate his response as it went far beyond the belated response from the court. He basically stated that the court needed to ‘professionalize’ in terms of not just diversity, but general equal opportunity, integrity, and moving away from the club type organization that the court has become. He saw the functional problems before the court knew there were problems. He started an internal campaign well before 2020 but couldn’t get the alignment needed for change. But now with a bigger national conversation, all of a sudden somms are resigning instead of working to fix an obviously broken system. As such, his frustrations were visible.
All that said, Bobby is a pro. I don’t use that term lightly. Well before BLM exploded, he was trying to drive change within the court as he sees the viability of that organization as a way to further the profession of service. With this latest scandal, I can’t help but to wonder if his efforts are too little too late.
He is also leading the effort to get our government to help independent restaurants survive. He is a leader in an industry that many of us value.
The reader comments are all over the place.
There were some earlier this summer. If you follow Levi Dalton on Twitter there was a bunch of activity a few months ago.
Horrific stories in that article. And sad. The resignations are a start, however culture is a reflection of leadership, and I don’t think there will be meaningful change until that shifts.
Geoff Kruth aka Harvey WINE-stein.
Wine stain.
Covering his ass…the Somm movies 100% catered to and enabled the egomania of the CMS crowd. He could at least show some self awareness and humility
Sounds like a bunch of self important bullies who set themselves up as gatekeepers to the industry.
“the wine world” is a big place with loads of wonderful people all over. Just because he chose to enable and make fake celebrities out of some of the most obnoxious assholes in it doesn’t give him standing to piss all over the rest of it.
Well said
How terrible. Makes me even more resolute in only patronizing restaurants that allow corkage so that this cruelty is not perpetrated.
I can’t tell if this is a joke or not