Don’t be fooled by the title of this blog post. While it has crossed our minds on more than one occasion to drop out of the wine knowledge race, we are staying the course. With only three short weeks remaining, it would be easy to succumb to the pressure and throw in the serviette. Instead, we are ‘taking a pass’ (several passes actually) through the various learning materials. Every pass through the materials reveals another piece of information crucial to our success.

Part of our due diligence includes reading stories and first-hand experiences of others who have made the journey. And while there are a number of similarities in everyone’s account of the Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory Course & Examination, no one (at the time of this blog post) has written about his or her experience during the COVID-19 pandemic. We get a pretty good picture of the format and flow of the 2-day course, but really have no idea what to expect in the classroom.

The challenge of learning new things coupled with the anticipation of the final exam could be just enough to justify ‘taking a pass.’ With three weeks remaining, however, it seems we’ve come too far to give up. Still much to learn, and revisiting the same information just makes sense. I don’t think you can over prepare. Even if the information you learn is more advanced than the curriculum covered in the level 1 courses, it will definitely be required for the Certified Sommelier Examination. So… go ahead and ‘take a pass.’

Back to the books 😉

Note: The image (above) shows me ‘taking a pass’ through The Wine Bible by Karen MacNeil.

Next article in the series: Enthusiast to Sommelier: Pandemic Impact

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