Who knew that our sprint to sommelier-hood would eventually become a marathon filled with rescheduled classes, delayed exams and overall uncertainty. We are now just over ten months deep into the curriculum for the Introductory Sommelier Course & Examination without an end in sight. Due to unforeseen challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, our scheduled course and examination has been postponed–indefinitely.

The Court of Master Sommeliers has been completely transparent in communicating changes to their programs and plans to adopt safety protocols once the in-person courses resume. As of now (mid-March 2021), all brick-and-mortar courses have been postponed through the end of June 2021. This gauntlet of challenges has inspired CMS to develop and launch a suite of online courses. The first is slated for release in April 2021.

Given the complexity of the Certified Sommelier Examination and Advanced Sommelier Course & Examination, I would imagine that only the Introductory Sommelier Course & Examination will be available online. Some of the self-paced training videos have been posted on the The Court of Master Sommeliers website.

I am a fan of online learning, and I’m anxious to see how CMS curriculum developers handle teaching the Deductive Tasting Method in an online environment. Regardless, we are ready to resume our quest. Meanwhile… keep studying 😉

Might need a new corkscrew before it’s over!

First article in this series: Enthusiast to Sommelier: Getting Started

Next article in this series: Enthusiast to Sommelier: We’re Back! Again.