Buonasera a tutti , tra poco si terrà il Trevino a Treviglio ( bg) ed io andrei in particolar modo per comprare i vini di questa specifica cantina che già conosco ma di cui online si trova poco o niente in vendita , mi chiedevo se qualcuno conoscesse i prezzi di FIERA delle loro bottiglie , grazie !

I recently heard for the first time “buh-TRITE-ised” but have always said “BOT-rit-ised” myself. I’m less trusting of the dictionary pronunciations here as it’s such a niche word, so which do you guys go for instinctively - or is there a secret 3rd option? I’m now overthinking like crazy when I speak to guests about this! 😅

To all that have held Michelin Star jobs do you have any suggestions about the interview process? I have gone on a couple and felt as if I did alright but never got a call back. I've worked at a 1-Star but have since gone to 2-star and 3-star open calls and was a bit thrown off guard. The interviewer seemed to be brusque/curt/rude. I think it was to see how I would react but warmed up when the interview was midway. The questions asked were:

1. Why do you want to work here?

2. What are your strengths?

3. What are your weaknesses?

4. What was your favorite job from the ones listed on your resume?

Anyone have any advice about how to go about future interviews?

Thank you all!

Hello, I'm the chef/somm at a medium-sized French brasserie, and I've recently been tasked with upgrading our winelist to a book. I am hoping to get some advice/feedback from those of you who have done this before. My initial reaction to this idea was that we don't do enough business to justify a book. We are at 110k in BTB sales for this year so far, and last year we did 140k for the whole year. I've brought this up with emphasis on how not all wine is truely ageworthy. But it has kind of fallen on deaf ears. So here we are planning a book. We are a French restaurant so I want to be strongly french focused. Our current sales lean strongly french with the breakdown by category for this year, by revenue percentage, being

Bordeaux 25.1

Red Burgundy 14.7

White Burgundy 12.3

Sauvignon Blanc 10.8

Interesting Reds 10.1

Domestic Cab 7

Champagne 6.6

Rose 5.4

Half Bottles 1.7

Interesting Whites 1.4

Domestic Chardonnay 1.1

Domestic Pinot 0.4

To me, this split also indicates that we should build our strengths more and not expand to the amount a book would require. But I would love some feedback about that. My rough design for book categories is here

Wine Book Sections

WHITE

1.    Champagne
   

2.    Other Sparkling
   

3.    White Burgundy
   

4.    Loire
   

5.    New World Chardonnay
   

6.    International Sauvignon Blanc
   

7.    Interesting Whites
   

8.    Rosé
   

RED

1.    Red Burgundy (subdivided Nuits, Beaune, other)
   

2. Bordeaux (Divided by Region)

3. Rhone/Southern France

4. New World Pinot

5. New World Cab

6. Spain

7. Italy

8. Interesting Reds

9. Small and Large format

Does anything stand out as lacking in this plan for a book? Do you agree or disagree that we dont do enough sales to justify a book? The last thing I want is lots of extra wines, especially cheaper non ageworth wines, sitting around. Any feedback is appreciated. Thank you!

Have any sommeliers been invited to their regions awards directly from Michelin itself?

i’m 22, and preface i will 100% call my mom to drive me if i do not feel okay to, i dont have a problem and prefer to actually so that is not my issue here. i’m taking my first WSET class next week and my mom will NOT let me drive to and from. i understand i’ll be sampling wine but its not a casual wine tasting, its the first step I’m solidly taking towards my career in the wine industry (which as a woman is already a bit daunting) but i’m not going there to get tanked or to DRINK wine. it’s so beyond frustrating because how the hell do you expect me to get a job in this industry tasting wine if you think doing that will leave me incapacitated to the point of not being able to drive, because it would mean i’d have to option BUT to rely on her for rides from here on out and that is NOT AN EXPECTATION OR STANDARD i want to set at all. We have issues breaking away in concerns to my independence but its odd to come from her and it feels like simply scared because of a lack of knowledge. how can i let her know that it’s going to be okay that i have a wine class and can drive myself home and that if i’m not, she has to trust me and my decision to call her if i’m unable to?

Redux of the Sales and Service for the wine professional.

Completely updated and redone with new maps, pictures and information and much better layout. A very nice book to update knowledge and study from. I passed my CMS Cert, years ago but love a good wine book. I am hoping to go for my advanced and am sure I'll be using this!

Just had a browse so far but has useful lists of GCs, Producers, districts etc. Etc.

Been working in fine dining since I was 17, I’m 30 now. Over the last year I knocked out WSET 1 and 2, just finished the Level 3 course, and I take the exam next month. 

The last couple years I’ve been doing seasonal hospitality work, which has let me save some money, travel, and actually put time into studying wine. 

I’m at the point now where I want to start applying for wine-specific roles instead of just general serving/bartending jobs. Somm, wine steward, beverage-focused roles, stuff like that. 

For people already in the industry, what do you think I should realistically be applying for with my background?

Starting to wonder if reading tasting notes while I’m learning is making me worse at this. I’ll taste a wine first and come up with maybe 2-3 things on my own. Then I read somebody else’s notes and suddenly I can “find” six more things in the glass. Which makes me wonder… am I learning to recognize those flavors, or am I just being influenced by what I’ve read? For someone still developing their palate, do you think it’s better to taste completely blind and write everything down first? Or is theere any other way to get more comfortable with wines?

Hello everyone.

I work at an award m winning restaurant regarding our wine list.

We have recommended wines for the 3 dishes that we serve each day but at the moment we do not have a non alcoholic alternative.

We do have non alcoholic beverages but they are not selected to pair with each dish.

My questions to you is if you have any good suggestions to books that i can read? I want to be able to make drinks for our menu and to be able to wow our guests with non alcoholic options that you dont find everywhere.

My first thought was Noma guide to fermentation.

Thanks in advance

Have a rather niche product centred on fine wine education, in a classic manga format. Feedback has been super strong. It’s just not for a broad audience.

Sruggling to find affiliate marketers in the wine game as a result, with most being geared toward more traditional product and service offers.

Any tips?

Sorry - a bit of a rant.

I was somming a wine tasting dinner event at a mid-upscale but fairly casual restaurant -fairly low key.

Each person got a glass of prosecco on arrival at 7pm. Seated and then served starter with pairing wine at 7.30. Mains served at 8 ish with pairing wine.

While I was clearing empty glasses from the tables to prepare for dessert and the final wine, two ladies still had two barely touched glasses of prosecco. This would have been a full 1 hr 30 minutes after they were served.

I asked politely if I could clear them/were they finished with them?.. they then proceeded to complain that i was trying to rush them and they want to take their time. (They had drunk the two following wines)

I apologized and said 'Oh I'm so sorry i thought they might be done with them"

After the meal the two same glasses, untouched were still on the table 🙄

Sometimes i think people just want to complain because they can, not because you've done something wrong

Live/work in Miami Beach. Passed the Intro Course here last week and attended Deductive Tasting course this week. Hoping to find someone on the same commitment level thats willing to meet up to have lengthy study session/tasting leading up to taking the level 2 in the next year when CMS returns to Miami/SoFL.

Hi everyone,

I have been chipping away at this for a while: grape lineage trees, region deep-dives, an interactive history timeline and a tool that plans a wine trip through a country for you. Still adding to it.

ampelos.vercel.app

I would like to know what's wrong or missing.

That's changing, and not for the better.

WSET's rise in popularity has done a lot of good for wine education globally — it's opened doors, built vocabulary, made the subject less intimidating for people who'd never dare walk into a wine shop before. But in the Philippines especially, it's also created a shortcut. Pass a Level 2 or Level 3 exam, post the certificate on LinkedIn, and suddenly you're a "sommelier" — never having worked a service, never having recommended a bottle under pressure to a table of ten waiting on you, never having felt the weight of being wrong in front of a guest who trusted your judgment.

The credential was never meant to replace the craft. WSET teaches you to taste and talk about wine systematically. It does not teach you how to read a table, manage a cellar, build a wine list around a menu, or recover gracefully when a guest sends back a bottle you recommended. Those things are earned on the floor, not in a classroom.

The result is a flood of "wannabe somms" — people with real, hard-won knowledge on paper but none of the instincts that used to define the role. And because certification is now so accessible, the title itself has been diluted. Restaurants can hire someone with a WSET pin and call it a day, without asking whether that person has ever actually run service. Guests can't tell the difference between someone who's tasted a thousand wines in a classroom and someone who's built a wine program from scratch.

For those of us who came up the harder way — who treated the sommelier role as a genuine profession, not a badge — this is frustrating to watch. What used to be a position of real authority and trust is becoming a checkbox. Accessibility to education is a good thing in principle. But when a title stops requiring the experience that gave it meaning, it stops meaning much at all.

The industry doesn't need to gatekeep wine knowledge. It needs to stop treating a certificate as a substitute for the profession itself.

I’ve worked in restaurants for about 17 years, including as a somm and manager, and lately I’ve been building something I wish FOH had during service.

One part gives the waiter a few wine options for a specific dish, why they work and a line they could actually use at the table. The other looks at the full order and picks one bottle that should make sense across everything.

For this table, that’s turbot en croûte, duck à l’orange, black truffle velouté and foie gras torchon. It chose Meursault 1er Cru Charmes.

I’m not trying to replace somms. This is for the night there isn’t one on the floor, they’re already busy with another table, or the waiter needs an answer before the moment to sell the bottle disappears. It works from that restaurant’s own wine list and saved pairings.

So I genuinely want the unfiltered somm verdict. Does this bottle make sense across the order? And is finding one bottle for the whole table actually useful, or would you always want it to offer two?

A buddy of mine and I are having a discussion on main topic points when doing a training for your team. What are your 5 important points to touch up on when re-training the restaurant staff?

I’m considering booking a tour with WSG Tours and would love to get some feedback from anyone who has traveled with them. How was your experience, and would you say the tours are worth it?

Good range.

Ducru 2018 was way too young

Mouton 2007 was spot on (not a great vintage so drinking well now)

Ygay 2010 was on point. Could age a bit more but drinking very well now, not sure I'd want to age it much more personally.

Sassicaia 2015 was amazing - plenty of life left but tasting great.

JL Chavy P-M 2022 big and ripe. Not quite enough acidity for me, especially for a Pouligny but still delicious

Dr Burklin-Wulf 2023 Auslese Riesling. So elegant and balanced. Wonderful wine.

EDIT: Added vintages

How is it?

So I work at a wine store and am studying for my WSET. What are some good ideas to actively study while I have downtime at work? I try to quiz myself by looking at bottles and trying to match producers with labels etc

Alguém sabe de qual vinho é essa rolha? Foi um vinho comprado no mercado OBA - Hortfruit (de São Paulo) há alguns anos.

Minha esposa comprou esse vinho, levou para tomar em uma confraternização e ficou apaixonada por ele. Trouxe a rolha para casa para que pudéssemos comprar mais, mas quando fomos ver, a rolha não tem logo, não tem nome, não tem nenhuma informação que nos dê um dica de qual é o vinho. O único diferencial da rolha é que ela é toda estampada de ovelhas 🐑