My comment was regarding the wine world rather than the sommeliers themselves. Becoming an MS certainly gives a big boost to the individuals career. The majority of them use it as a platform to do something other than working as a sommelier. It is a shame that there isn’t more money in working the floor. The CMS is a serviced based organization, yet the vast majority of people that reach the MS level no longer serve wine.
Exactly. They’re giving the same amends to those who failed as those who passed. That implies there’s a degree of subjective relativity to judging the results. Likely, even a higher number did well, so they deemed it unusually easy and failed people on that basis, when in retrospect, without cheating of others, they may have passed.
Seems like a perfectly good use of voluntary lie detector tests
54 passed the tasting portion, if I’m reading that correctly. 53 will have the chance to retake it. It’s a 3 part exam, so about 30 people failed other parts of it.
There is and there isn’t. If you get the right dead to rights it counts quite a bit more than having a “strong train of thought”. My feeling is that there was a bit of a curveball wine (like a Fiano di Avellino) and the group answers didn’t deviate as much as they would have expected. Wines like that in blind tastings (especially a high stress environment) generate all kinds of answers.
In 1985, someone stole boxes filled with exam booklets for the NY State Bar Exam from a pier in Manhattan. (There were a number of rationales offered at the time for why someone would want to do such a thing, but none made any sense). Everyone who had their exam booklets stolen had to retake the exam.
I wonder if those that knew the wines prior to taking the test were dumb enough to go in there and nail every glass or try and get close enough to pass?
Now that they know who gave the information, do they know who received it directly? They should be eliminated. I think.
That would depend on how the information is given, no?
We have little information on what was actually leaked out, but if all the leaker said was “you should go buy these wines and be familiar with them”, I don’t think the students should bear much responsibility.
Please disregard what I had posted. It turns out it was bad info I was given. Need to set the record straight.
During the exam? That doesn’t sound right, but does sound stupid. There would be another MS proctor in the exam and would be the witness to whom gave and received the “leak”.
If it was at anytime before any individual’s exam (up to the last to go in), then there’s no way to know who told who what. From what I recall they take it individually one at a time, one after another. In theory info could be passed along as each leaves the room.
Not suggesting that happened.
I’ve met the Ottawa based somm that did pass from this group. Nice guy at a very interesting small resto. Shared a few wines with him last time we were there.
I edited my previous post, info was not correct.
They should magically know! How stupid of them not to!
why let the people that failed re-test? Either they legitimately failed, or they knew which wines were in the set and still missed.
Ryan, I agree 100%. My last comment (and original comment for that matter) was just making the point that it was indeed a career boost as the question had been posed in an earlier post.
My background in the business came from retail before going to the distribution side and later supplier. So those coming from the CMS courses over to the sales side of the business I would perceive from a sales perspective, but your perspective on service is well-taken.
Most go into education or running larger restaurant group programs or being an educator/sales consultant for wineries or suppliers.
The invalidation is a huge deal as this is the culmination of years of work and tasting is the hardest of the three to pass, theory you know or you don’t, and service you do for a living, tasting is so subjective due to time, day, location, a multitude of factors that it is very difficult to have an “on” tasting day.
Totally, it’s devastating. I feel for the people innocently swept up in this.
As I posted earlier Matt, 4 of those awarded the pin are friends or colleagues in Seattle or from Seattle.
Heartbroken for them.
Even if he is barred. He will still have the qualifications.
Maybe like a lawyer practicing without a license