I am sure the people at Netflix streaming are monstrously confused by some of my choices. I switch from Doctor Who to Aziz Ansari comedy to Dexter and then to a documentary about taking the Master Sommelier test, with the abbreviated title, Somm.
Yes, this is a craft beer blog but the process and the studying and the tasting of wine after wine is very analagous to our world.
The four main characters in this drama are all attempting to reach the final plateau of the wine world. And the amount of information they must regurgitate like so much wine is astonishing. History, appellations, grape varietals producers and the list goes on and on.
The Master test is comprised of three parts designed (it seems) to torture those who are probably good enough to in that rareified air. A serving portion where you have to perform a restaurant style wine task, an oral exam and what seems the most devilish is the blind tasting.
Imagine being given 6 beers from light to dark and being put ON the CLOCK and you then have say not only the style, not only the brewer but the year as well. All while giving confident tasting notes.
I was held rapt by all four, who could pick out many right. Do that for me with beer and I would probably give you the correct style on 5 out of 6 but barring a miracle would not be able to tell you the brewer or year. Hell no. But these guys could with a sniff, a swirl and a taste (followed by the disgusting spit into the bucket).
And unlike “reality” shows, this doc simply showed the people talking about and tasting wine. The drama was already there. It didn’t have to be manufactured because the people were passionate and thus, interesting.
Now we just need these guys to do the Cicerone companion piece.
I really enjoyed Somm, and it came down to the strength of the characters and their obsessions. A bit like a mirror, but I’m thankful the (Lvl 2) Cicerone test was no where near that level of detail.
I’m very curious about the Master Somm syllabus. Is there a set list of wines that they are required to know? It seems unlikely that the test could pull ANY wine from ANY vintage from ANY producer for the tasting portion.
This movie really opened up my eyes to how knowledgeable sommeliers really are. The tasting portions of the movie were mind blowing. How much money do these guys spend on wine? I was wondering if they were sponsored by their employers or something. Luckily studying for the BJCP exam can be done for a couple of hundred bucks.
After watching the film I started reading more about wine and it’s very interesting how the climate and geographical location impacts the final product so much.
I would also be very interested to see what the reading list was like for the successful “Somms” because they seemed to have a hell of a lot of downloaded data in their brains.
John – I too wondered what the procedure for choosing the wines were because it could make or break a test. Maybe they will do a sequel from the other side, the people proctoring the tests.
Steve – The money is probably staggering, especially considering how much they spit out.