How I Became A Sommelier, Part Two
Or, Practical Applications Of My Classical Music Degree
So, you remember that I wrote a piece that was published on JancisRobinson.com for this year’s Wine Writing Competition? Well, some more good news on the publication front: Last week’s article on the book How Champions Think was part of a weekly article roundup for The New Wine Review! I’m incredibly grateful to have my writing being shared so much as of late. Thanks to the editors at The New Wine Review for including my work alongside so many other writers I admire, and thanks to you the reader for your enthusiastic support of Brunello Bombshell!
The essay below is a continuation of the origin story I started telling about a month ago. Read Part One here to catch up on how I got married and changed careers during my Saturn return.
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Without fail, whenever I am on the floor, I will get this question at least once per shift.
“How did you become a somm?”
Most people are bewildered to learn that not only did I leave my day job in music to become a sommelier, I still use all the things I learned as a professional musician in my current line of work.
Let’s rewind a bit.
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The pandemic changed my relationship to work in general, and specifically my relationship to my work as a musician and a performer. Though I never stopped working in music, I had ample time to learn the basics about wine and rediscover the Bay Area through the lens of food and wine. I started following some influential wine figures on Instagram, and eventually started posting some wine and movie pairings on my own account.
In the summer of 2020, I tore my meniscus doing some at home HIIT workouts, and ended up hospitalized in intensive care with acute sepsis and a pulmonary embolism. My medical setback had a major impact on my breathing technique as a singer (blood clots in lungs have a way of doing that in the least convenient way possible). 2021 was when I contracted COVID. Twice. Any breath support that I had worked hard to regain after the pulmonary embolism became even more of a struggle to maintain.
Late that year, I found a job at a mom-and-pop pizzeria with a penchant for minimal intervention wine. It had been way too long since I last felt comfortable waiting tables, but coming back into the restaurant world felt like riding a bike. I read wine books, I flipped through flashcards during slow Wednesday lunch services, and I found my personality on the floor. It was here that I felt supported in a new application of my entertainment background.
By the end of summer 2022, I was frustrated with my steadily decreasing lung capacity and a lack of growth opportunities in my music job. I handed in my resignation in the middle of August, and sang from behind the piano for the last time almost exactly two years ago. My former boss, a wine enthusiast with a penchant for big bold red wines from Napa, gifted me a bottle of Larkmead Cabernet Sauvignon with the instruction to open it with someone who will appreciate it with me.
The day after I left my music job, I popped open Instagram to see a familiar face with a big pin.
10 people had passed the Master Sommelier exam. One of the largest and most diverse classes in the history of the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas.
And right there in the center was a San Francisco-based sommelier whose journey I’d been following on Instagram since the wine bug first bit me during lockdown.
I saw that photo, and knew that I had the ability to pass the Master Sommelier exam. And more than that, because I didn’t see anyone that looked like me in that photo, I had to pass.
Two months after quitting my job and seeing that photo, I took my first formal steps towards becoming a sommelier when I passed the Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory Exam. Guess who was teaching their first class as a Master Sommelier?
With my new pin in hand, I walked up to Chris and shook his hand, thanking him for sharing his expertise. And I told him, “You’re the reason why I’m here today”.
The two of us looked at each other and tried our best to fight back tears. (It didn’t work. I had the mascara streaks to prove it.)
He graciously said thank you. And then he invited me to join his tasting group the following week.
It was in this tasting group that I had found the support of an active, studious community of fellow sommeliers that I had been yearning to discover. The tasting group I had joined was full of the best and brightest working in San Francisco’s storied restaurants, and within that group were a few people who convinced me to take the Certified Sommelier exam five months after passing Intro. We practiced blind tasting and drilled theory while going through the finer points of champagne service together. We held each other accountable for hitting the books during the day as we were working restaurant floors by night.
I walked out of my first attempt at the Certified Sommelier Exam with an upgraded pin, and walked into my first service meeting as a sommelier the next morning. My mentor - the person who inspired me to take my first sommelier exam - was the one to hand me my new pin, with the instructions to wear it with pride.
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