Person writing wine exam notes beside glasses of white and red wine on a polished wooden table.

Wine Certifications For Enthusiasts: Which Programs Are Worth It?

Maybe it was the buzz of the Master of Wine exam earlier this week, but I’ve had wine certifications on the brain. Having taught a fair few sections of WSET wine classes myself, I’ve always been happy to find that at least a few candidates in the courses have no professional involvement in the wine industry and are pursuing certification for the pure love of the game. While there are myriad resources to help professionals evaluate which wine certification is best for their specific situation (spoiler alert: it boils down to the intersection of difficulty, recognition within the industry, availability, and cost – measured in both money and time), there are fewer guides for wine enthusiasts looking to use certification to sharpen their wine knowledge. This primer seeks to remedy that.

Why bother?

When asked why he continues to amass rare vinyl records and upgrade his hi-fi setup to levels of quality appreciated only by superhuman ears, a friend once quipped, “That’s easy. I got into this stuff for two reasons: the expense and the inconvenience.” He was joking, of course, but it’s a good mental bookmark that not everything satisfying to humans has a rate of return that can be plotted on a graph. To a wine enthusiast outside the industry, wine certifications can look like that six-figure wall of records to a person whose relationship with music starts and ends with a $12.99/mo Spotify subscription. Why on earth would you bother?

I can think of at least three good reasons:

  1. Expand your vinous horizons. Many wine certifications are general, covering a wide range of global styles and regions. This can benefit enthusiasts and collectors even more than professionals, as many wine consumers become enamored with a cherished region early in their wine journeys and lose sight of what’s happening in the rest of the wine world. Ever had Ramisco from Colares? What about old-vine Riesling from the East Kelowna Slopes? You might not know what you’re missing.
  2. Delve deeper into regional focus. Particularly with regional courses like the “Masters” programs from Wine Scholar Guild, wine certifications can hone one’s expertise on a favorite region or country. Maybe you’re ready to go from a mere buyer of Burgundy to a true curator. Maybe you want to understand the importance of base wine production in Champagne. Either way, certification may be the best path.
  3. Develop an honest palate. I wrote a few weeks ago about the importance of blind tasting, and there’s no better way to start or hone a blind tasting practice than a difficult wine certification. Unfortunately, in my view, blind tasting is held back for higher levels of certification in many programs. Whether it’s part of the exam or not, serious students should begin blind tasting from day one.

The Major Certifiers

Below are the facts as well as some of my own commentary about the major wine certifiers, two of which are notably absent: the Institute of Masters of Wine (IMW), keeper of the Master of Wine (MW) certification, and the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI). Both are open exclusively to active trade members and as such beyond the scope of this article. To avoid any accusations of rank partisanship, the other majors are listed below in alphabetical order. Speaking of the alphabet, grab a pen – acronyms abound in the land of wine certification.

The Court of Master Sommeliers Americas

Run separately from the European branch of the organization, CMS Americas is perhaps the best-known wine certifier, thanks in no small part to the popular documentary SOMM (2012), which follows a group of Master Sommelier hopefuls leading up to the exam. One of the few tracks on the list to include a service portion on its examinations and one that introduces blind tasting from a very early level (a point in its favor). After weathering a cheating scandal that invalidated an entire MS exam in 2018 and a sexual harassment exposé broken by the New York Times in 2020 that implicated several of the top brass, the Court seems to have taken its hard lessons to heart, appointing women to leadership positions across the organization, increasing transparency, and improving governance throughout the certification process.

  • Eligibility: Of the four levels of certification, two – the Introductory Sommelier Course and Examination and the Certified Sommelier Examination – are open to those outside the trade. The third level, the Advanced Sommelier Course and Examination, may still be available to some non-trade members, depending on circumstance. The official verbiage to enroll in the Advanced Course is “The applicant must have at least two years of experience working in a restaurant service or sales job within the last seven years.” To sit the Advanced Exam that number rises to three of the last seven years, and while the Master Sommelier exam does not have explicit requirements, the current chair of the board of CMS-A told me, “…it would be extremely difficult to be successful at that level without being deeply involved in the industry on a daily basis.” Honestly, that may be an understatement.
  • Focus: The CMS certifications are general to beverage service, so spirits, sake, and beer are included as well as wine. Recent tweaks have increased the importance of business knowledge, particularly in the realm of on-premise trade (restaurants/hotels/venues, etc. – anywhere booze is consumed on the premises where it is purchased). Industry lore stresses the importance of appellation rules, producers, and vintages when attempting the CMS track, but as with any wine exam, trying to game the system by guessing what will be included is a dangerous business.
  • Blind Tasting: Blind tasting is included in the Introductory Sommelier Course syllabus but is not part of the exam. The Certified Sommelier Exam, however, has a four-wine blind tasting section (two whites and two reds), one of the reasons it is often rated as slightly more difficult than the WSET Level 3 exam, which has candidates taste and describe only two.
  • The Bottom Line: For those enthusiasts and collectors who aren’t afraid to roll up their sleeves and practice wine service, the Certified Sommelier Exam is an ambitious goal. For certifications open to the public, only a few (the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines, for example) rank higher in both difficulty and global industry recognition.

The International Sommelier Guild

Established in 1982, the ISG is, like the CMS, an organization focused on certifying sommeliers, as the name suggests. As such its courses are closely linked not only to wine knowledge and service skills, but also to the business of running a restaurant wine program.

  • Eligibility: While no specific restrictions apply, only the first two levels of ISG certification – the Intermediate Wine Certificate (IWC) and Advanced Wine Certificate (AWC) – explicitly invite non-professionals to apply, while the Sommelier Diploma Program (SDP) and ISGM/ISGM Degree are specifically designed for professionals.
  • Focus: The wine education is general and broad, with specific emphasis (as might be guessed) on the business and specific needs of sommeliers. The AWC level and above include non-wine beverages relevant to the restaurant business.
  • Blind Tasting: Blind tasting is part of the exam starting with the AWC, in a similar format to the CMS’s Certified Sommelier Exam (four total blind wines – two white and two red).
  • The Bottom Line: Interest in the ISG seems to have waned a bit in the past 15 years, and programs are more limited (particularly the AWC, which has no upcoming courses listed on the official website). Enthusiasts looking to earn their stripes the sommelier way might be better off looking to the CMS.

The Society of Wine Educators

SWE offers two wine-focused awards: Certified Specialist of Wine (CSW) and Certified Wine Educator (CWE). CSW is a popular entry point to certification for many ambitious wine professionals, while the CWE award is unusual in that it tests for teaching acumen along with wine knowledge and tasting ability.

  • Eligibility: While both awards are open to non-professionals, membership in the SWE is required (currently $135/yr and open to “serious wine hobbyists”, along with a long list of industry sectors)
  • Focus: Both SWE awards are general, and cover a good breadth of wine knowledge. Comparing different tracks is always fraught, but the difficulty of CSW is in the neighborhood of WSET Level 2 and CMS Intro, while CWE falls more around the WSET Level 3 / CMS Certified level.
  • Blind Tasting: Like WSET Level 2 or CMS Intro, CSW has a good level of blind tasting instruction, but no blind tasting examination. CWE, on the other hand, has two tasting examinations, one a traditional blind tasting and the other a demonstration that the candidate can identify common wine faults, a worthy addition that other certifiers might do well to consider.
  • The Bottom Line: An ongoing membership to a trade organization may not appeal to enthusiasts wishing to sharpen their wine knowledge and tasting skills, and while the CSW is a good alternative to something like WSET Level 2, CWE’s focus on education may not fit the goals of many consumers, making the SWE a more situational track for non-professionals.

Wine Scholar Guild

Organized around a mission of rejecting wine as a global commodity in favor of wine as a distinct expression of individuality and terroir, WSG is focused around regional courses in three tiers: the “Essentials” courses, offered for French, Italian, and Spanish wines; the “Scholar” courses, offering deeper dives into each of the aforementioned three with the addition of Germany; and the “Masters” courses, with intense, focused instruction on Burgundy, Champagne, or Bordeaux. In addition, they are developing a “Tasting” track, one part of which has been launched as of this writing.

  • Eligibility: All WSG courses are available to non-professionals, and there are no prerequisites for jumping into the higher-level courses.
  • Focus: Each course has a stated focus, perfect for those who crave a deeper understanding of a specific subsection of the wine world, but don’t fancy memorizing the Wards of South Africa.
  • Blind Tasting: From where I sit, this is the main drawback of the WSG courses, and presumably one they are seeking to remedy with the development of the “Tasting” track. Offering high-level courses without any blind tasting exam components undermines the maximum difficulty and subsequent credibility of the resulting awards.
  • The Bottom Line: I’m thrilled someone is offering what the WSG has put together – serious deep dives for consumers and professionals alike who have a thirst for mastery within a narrow wine category. I just wish that, at least at the “Masters” level, there was a blind tasting exam involved. After all, if you really think there’s a meaningful difference between the taste of, say, Pauillac and Saint-Estèphe, or Gevrey-Chambertin and Vosne-Romanée, your candidates should prove they can taste it.

WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust)

Founded as a charitable trust dedicated to wine and spirits education in the UK in 1969, WSET has evolved into a global certifying body with awards in wine, spirits, beer, and sake. Long seen as a wine-focused organization, WSET has placed significant emphasis on developing rigorous and, importantly, separate non-wine courses over the last decade (when I took the Level 3 exam in 2016, it was still the combined Level 3 Award in Wine & Spirits, and sake and beer were but a distant dream). WSET is one of the most popular and globally recognized wine certifiers, with programs in over 70 countries.

  • Eligibility: All WSET awards are available to non-professionals, and unlike many certifiers, they also allow new students to skip over the Level 1 and Level 2 qualifications if their skills and experience are up to snuff (some details may vary by provider).
  • Focus: WSET presents a far more academic approach to wine, which requires similar appellation knowledge to the CMS exams, but values producer and vintage expertise less, favoring viticulture and vinification know-how by comparison. Writing is also key, with essays forming an important part of the examination from Level 3 onward. There are no regionally focused courses, but early levels focus on the “classics”, and the circle of concern expands with each increasing level of difficulty.
  • Blind Tasting: Tasting is an important part of every level, with a real focus on blind tasting emerging in Level 2, and the first blind tasting examination in Level 3. The Level 4 Diploma in Wines boasts what is undoubtedly the most difficult series of blind tastings in any certification open to non-professionals.
  • The Bottom Line: For those looking for general, well-rounded wine knowledge, WSET has something for everyone: Level 1 is an essential primer to the world of wine with some good representational tasting thrown in the bargain, while the Level 4 Diploma represents a multi-year achievement that is almost certainly the most difficult wine certification open to non-professionals. The only downside is that the organization can be a bit behind the times, both in terms of technology and curriculum. My hand still hurts from writing all those Diploma essays in pen.

TL;DR

Two thousand words later, and I haven’t even told you which course to take! At the end of the day, wine enthusiasts and collectors have different priorities than most professionals when it comes to wine certifications. I haven’t even mentioned some of the most important ones – whether an in-person course is offered near your home where you can actually taste through wines rather than staring at a lecture on a screen, for instance. But if you want my down-est and dirtiest advice, it’s simple. Most non-professionals fall into one of two buckets. Either you want to expand your general base of wine knowledge and appreciation, in which case I recommend WSET, or you want to add detail to your knowledge of a specific region, in which case I recommend the Scholar or Masters courses from Wine Scholar Guild. If you have your heart set on a wine service portion of the exam (hey, as someone currently in a rigorous education program, I understand this kind of masochism well), look to the CMS. Whichever you choose, you’ll likely need some good wine, which is where Grand Cru Direct comes in.

Have you taken a wine certification course you loved? Maybe one you hated? Drop us a line – we’d love to hear all about it.

Disclaimer: The author holds the WSET Level 4 Diploma in Wines and is a current Master of Wine student. While he does occasionally drop in to teach a section of WSET 1-3 at a local wine school, that is the extent of his financial interest in a wine education provider.