the MW in the USA “were either veryclued-in trade people or serious con-sumers or collectors. Today,” she said,“recognition of the title has increasedin both depth and breadth.” Now, 30%of the membership and 70% of students come from outside the UK.

A straw poll of the main UK super-markets and top companies show manyof them use MWs, either as directemployees or in a consulting role, jus-tifying its €5,000 cost. Waitrose has along-standing philosophy of employingMWs, currently six – three in the buy-ing team, and three consultants – andthe company has the most well-regard-ed wine range of all the supermarkets.Justin Howard-Sneyd MW, the compa-ny’s manager of wine buying said: “asa fast-growing business with a greatreputation for the quality of our winerange, and as the complexity of whatwe offer increases, we need talentedpeople to make sure that our teamstays ahead of the game.”

Master Sommelier (MS)

“MSs are ‘front of the house’ people,” explained Brian Julyan, chiefexecutive of the Court of Master Sommeliers. “Their job is working inrestaurants, so when customers askquestions, sommeliers need to answer.Everything we test is done orally, and has to do with doing the job. We identify those who are masters oftheir craft.”

The MS is examined orally, with apractical exam in front of a jury,involving: serving a bottle of wineequally between a number of glasses;decanting; answering questions aboutvintages, products and food, and making wine recommendations; setting up wine dinners; training ateam to sell house wine; managing the

wine list’s profitability, and preparingglassware for the table. The MS mustalso know about liqueurs and spirits.

From its UK origins in 1969, the MSappeared in the US in the mid 1980s,before both the MW and the WSET.Given the cultural desire for educationwith certification in the US, it is no surprise that more than two-thirdsof the world’s 120 MSs are basedthere, and that the other international educational bodies were slow to compete effectively.

Being both an MS and an MW, wine consultant and writer Doug Frost,who’s also the vice chair of the American chapter of Court of MasterSommeliers, is well qualified to com-ment on the differences between thesequalifications. “There is not a greatdeal of overlap between the two programs. The MS requires exhaustiveknowledge of the rules and regulationsthroughout the wine producing world,as well as regions, grapes, producersand styles,” he said. “The blind tastingcomponent is rigorous but not asdemanding as the MW. The largestfocus of the MS is service, about whichthe MW is wholly silent. The MW focusupon grape and wine production, maturation and marketing is almostwholly absent from the MS program.”

What does unify the MS and the MW is that they both have a master-apprentice philosophy, where thosewho have passed are expected to offertheir services to help future candi-dates achieve mastery.

Wine MBA

Where the MW has one writtenpaper (out of four) focused on the busi-ness and marketing aspects of theglobal industry, the Wine MBA’s entirethrust is commerce and marketing.

Winemakers and viticulturalistshave their own specialist oenology and viticultural quali-

fications. But what qualifications areavailable for those who want a seriouscareer working with wine, but whodon’t want to be winemakers?

A number of qualifications exist, both inside and outside traditional academia. The Master of Wine (MW),Master Sommelier (MS), and Wine MBArepresent the peak of these, while there are also the Wine & Spirit Education Trust courses offered in 42 countries, with various societies ofwine educators around the world alsooffering qualifications.

Master of Wine (MW): Mt Everest

The Master of Wine (MW) is a UK-based qualification that’s highlycoveted within that market, though it is gaining recognition internationally.Executive director of the Instituteof Masters of Wine, Siobhan Turnersaid it “is a membership body that promotes a cross disciplinary approachto understanding wine at the highestlevel. It is the premier group of peoplefostering wine trade education with aglobal perspective and a completeapproach to the cycle of wine fromchoosing the site for a vineyardthrough to understanding consumptionof wine and all the social, political, eco-nomic and environmental factorsaround it.”

Since it inception in 1953, the MWcame under fire for being some quirkyBritish exam, but since becoming aninternational qualification in 1983, ithas grown into an organisation whose264 members are widely respectedaround the world. Fifteen years ago,when American Mary Ewing-Mulliganpassed the MW, those who knew about

As the global wine trade becomes ever more corporatised and competitive, havingskilled employees with an intimate knowledge of not just wine, but the wine business,becomes ever more important. Sally Easton MW explains how.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF WINE

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Offered by the Bordeaux School ofManagement in academic partnershipwith the University of South Australiasince 2001, it’s an English language,22 month program that costs €25,000.Based at three sites - Bordeaux, Adelaide and London - it is a fullyaccredited MBA. To enrol, prospectivestudents need a Bachelor qualificationplus five years of work experience inthe wine industry. What makes it different from a generalist MBA is thatthe case studies and examples usedthroughout are from the wine industry,with the curriculum including market-ing, corporate finance, strategic man-agement, supply chain managementand other typical MBA subjects.

Isabelle Dartigues, the school’sdirector, said: “We address only profes-sionals, which not all MBAs do, whoare high position managers.” Sheadded “our pass rate is almost 100%because we have strict control duringthe year, so for example, when a stu-dent hasn’t passed an exam or casestudy, we have a strict policy for thestudent to re-sit the test.”

Cristían López, managing director ofCocha y Toro UK, achieved the WineMBA in 2006. He was clear whichqualification he wanted: “I’m passion-ate about the wine business and itneeds more professional, more capablepeople,” he says. “Some years agomaybe the old trade was seen as toosocial, and not organised so much by finance and marketing. But we needto know about exchange rates and currency fluctuation, about supply-demand economic issues and financialissues. Wine is a business, and it’s difficult to make a margin.”

A 2006 survey of alumni suggestedthat 41% of graduates had progressedvertically within their company, 47%had moved to larger international firms,with an average pay increase of 50%.

Where to begin (WSET)

In order to achieve the heights ofany of the three top qualifications,education needs to start somewhere,and the Wine and Spirit EducationTrust (WSET) offers programmes at

lower levels, including for spirits,which are open to both trade and consumer candidates. Since its 1970inception, 5,718 people have passedthe diploma. “The fully-supportednature of our courses is a particularstrength,” said David Wrigley, theTrust’s international developmentdirector. “We offer full tutor materialsso that there is no confusion when astudent gets in front of exam paper.”

As the WSET adapts to a globalindustry and a widening pool of loca-tions, it has commissioned a researchproject in three key markets, the UK,Germany and the US, to identify waysto improve the product and commer-cial relevance of the qualifications.

“There are different demands andissues in different countries,” said Ian Harris, chief executive of theWSET. “The UK is a mature market.The USA is in growth, but has thecredit crunch. I have to convince people that the training budget shouldnot be cut when times are hard. Wecan demonstrate that training putsmoney on the bottom line – we didsome research that showed £1,000 ofinvestment put £42,000 on the bottomline in three months.”

A US organisation, The Society ofWine Educators (SWE), also offerswine education and certification, tapping into the American hunger forcredentials. Their president, SharronMcCarthy, said: “our mission is to pro-mote wine education throughout theworld. We have over 2,000 members,including a chapter in Japan”.

The bottom line

The financial reward from gainingwine qualifications is hard to measure,especially as personal motivation is a

clear driver for all the top qualifications.Increased profile and reputation follow,even though some people remain con-fused about what the MS and MW mean.South African Cathy van Zyl MW, whogained her qualification in 2005, said “itcertainly didn't change my life financially,but I do far more wine judging and writ-ing as a result of passing the MW. Mostof the change has been personal; Iderived a great deal of satisfaction,achievement and sense of self worthfrom passing the MW.”

When Lopez started doing the MBA,he “was the managing director of Concha y Toro UK, with four people anda turnover of £6m. Seven years later wehave a turnover of £70m and an officewith 30 people.” This is not down to theMBA, he emphasised, but “the MBAhelped me gain more experience; youlearn and get better at what you do. Andwith that comes reward, a little moremoney, a little more responsibility.”

Gérard Basset MS, MW, WineMBA, isthe only person to have achieved allthree top qualifications. In mid-1980sBritain, working in the hospitality sector, he reached the final of a somme-lier competition and realised wine washis way forward. Basset said: “The MSwas the logical choice for someone want-ing to do sommeliery. But in the winetrade in England you were nothing if youweren’t an MW. I enjoyed learning,about different things from the MS. Thenwhen I sold my business in 2004, Iremembered the Wine MBA. It was nota strategic plan to have all three, just anevolution for someone who had noschool qualifications. Now it’s a USP.”

A common thread is the opportunityto network among current and futureindustry leaders and opinion formers.And regardless of whether the qualifi-

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Siobhan Turner, director of the Institute of Masters of Wine

“The Institute promotes a cross-disciplinary approach

to understanding wine, from choosing the site for

a vineyard through to understanding consumption of

wine and all the social, political, economic and

environmental factors around it.”

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cation is achieved, contact booksbulge. David Furer, who is a certifiedwine educator by the SWE, made fourattempts at the MS. But, he says, hehas “zero regrets. The process, even if you don’t get the MS, or the MW, is important. It’s the discipline, theaccumulation of knowledge and thebusiness contacts for your career thatmake the journey worthwhile.”

A diversity of careers

Global insight and networking arekey to both the MW and WineMBA too. Dartigues said: “We travel to various parts of the world, whichallows students to compare manage-ment practices. The aim is to build a global picture, and to benchmarkpractices across the wine world.”

While the MS is clearly devoted tothe highest levels of wine service andexperience at the table, and the wineMBA is focused at the purely business,marketing and commercial roles, MWsare found in broad and diverse careers,as journalists, educators, buyers, sellers, commercial directors and consultants. It’s difficult for someonelooking in to identify a clear ‘path’ thatMWs follow, because they don’t. But,as the Institute of MW’s Turner said: “if you’re looking for someone who can talk with confidence and authoritywith senior people in your business thenthe best person you can hire is an MW. He or she can speak authoritative-ly to your vineyard manager and yourchief winemaker and your head of marketing and understand what yourcorporate social responsibility personis saying to you.”

Basset, who later this year takes onthe presidency of the Court of MasterSommeliers, said the direction for the MS is “to keep education in therestaurant trade up to date and rele-vant. We need to encourage more peo-ple to come into the restaurant trade,despite the difficult, long hours.”

While it would be convenient for there to be a simple linear relation-ship between peak qualification andcommercial success, it would be naïveto suggest such a thing. People who

achieve these qualifications are ambitious, driven and successful, andthus attractive to employers, thoughFrost is apposite: “I am constantlycounselling candidates to expect nothing. Any success is built one brick

at a time, one job at a time, one task at a time, and having an MW or MSafter your name only offers you the opportunity to do more things. It's up to you to make the most of those opportunities.”

Brian Julyan, chief executive of the Court of Master Sommeliers

“Master Sommeliers are ‘front of the house’ people.

Everything we test has to do with doing the job. We

identify those who are masters of their craft. Their job

is working in sommelierly, so when customers ask

questions, sommeliers need to answer.”

Europe’s new initiative

To date, the world of wine educationhas been dominated by the US Society of Wine Educators, or UK institutionssuch as the Wine & Spirits EducationTrust. Now there’s another player: theEuropean Academy of Wine Education(EAWE), which recently held its first conference in Austria.

The founding members are drawnfrom institutions and groups acrossEurope: Germany’sGeisenheim, theCulinary Institute ofNorway’s vocationaltraining of somme-liers; and the WineAcademy Austria,among others, from16 countries.

“The time hascome that Europe —and in that I include the UK — nowneeds stronger cooperation and net-works, in terms of wine education,”says Dr Josef (Pepi) Schuller MW, direc-tor of the Austrian Wine Academy. “Younow have institutions all over Europe,mushrooming in every country. Wethink there is the need for the standardisation of certification of edu-cators.” One of the issues that arose from the EAWE’s initial round table discussion was the need to accommo-date local requirements. “As a country, Australia is extremely successful in

the world and successful in the UK,”explains Dr Schuller, by way of exam-ple, “but there are places where Aus-tralia is not established in the market,so there should be other countries fea-tured more strongly in their syllabus.”

The need to give wine makers accessto a broader wine education is also anissue. “All viticultural schools in theworld teach more or less viticulture,

but they don’tteach about thewines of the world,which is quite sur-prising,” says DrSchuller. “You lookat people who aretrained oenologists,who may end upworking in thetrade, and they are

coming to us looking for more infor-mation about wines and spirits of the world.”

And, of course, there is a benefit forwine educators themselves, not leastof which is having a forum where theycan exchange ideas and keep up with their subject. There are also plansafoot to organise a European Confer-ence for Wine Education on a regularbasis, with Dr Klaus Schaller, thedirector of Geisenheim, offering theuse of office space and support.

Felicity Carter

»The time has come that

Europe now needs stronger

cooperation and networks, in

terms of wine education.«Dr Josef Schuller MW