Somm: Obsessiveness in the Pursuit of Excellence

“You’ve got to stay in it if you really want it. It’s a test of dedication, the whole process. It’s full of confidence and doubt within the same ten minutes. It doesn’t stop.”  – Ian Cauble

In the world of wines, the Master Sommelier is the awe-inspiring king. Since the first Master Sommelier Diploma exam in the UK in 1964, there have been fewer than 200 who have passed and earned the right to wear the coveted Master Sommelier red pin.

Somm, a documentary by Jason Wise, follows a group of sommeliers studying for their Master diploma. And this is no ordinary exam. It is divided into three parts:

1. Theory: a gruelling test that requires the sommeliers to have an unfathomable amount of knowledge about everything to do with wines – the regions, the subregions, the villages, how the grapes are grown, how wine is made, how it is stored, why certain years are good… anything and everything to do with wine could be on the theory test.
2. Service: the sommeliers are put into a mock service environment where they are required to stay cool and collected when dealing with difficult customers.
3. The Blind Tasting: this is the most fiendish part of the exam. The sommelier is taken to a room where there are six glasses of wine (three white and three red) and they are required to identify its structure, body, alcohol, climate, whether it’s new world or old world: and then say exactly where it is from, and the vintage year.

Somm focuses on four sommeliers hoping to become masters: Ian Cauble, aka “Dad” who is something of a prodigy, and the most obsessed/dedicated of the group; along with Brian McClintic, Dustin Wilson and DLynn Proctor.

Although the world of sommeliers is highly competitive, and very few people actually pass the exam, this group are friends. They support each other, study with each other, goad each other, and generally keep each other sane through the insanity of studying.

“The test is almost impossible to pass—but without people it’s incomprehensible.” – Brian McClintic

As the film unfolds, their closeness makes sense: not only because it’s handy to have people to study with, but because each sommelier is a perfect specimen of the type of dedication it takes to become truly excellent in a field and the only ones who really understand them are each other.

The sheer amount of work that goes into driving oneself to that level is illustrated perfectly throughout the film. From the studying using thousands of flashcards (one claims to have close to 4000), to the wine tasting, to the emotional interviews with spouses widowed to wine, one thing is clear: excellence is not easy to attain.

One Master Sommelier relates how he would spend every morning at the market, walking around smelling different items, creating the mental catalogue of scents that is so vital when identifying and describing ones. I can imagine that is normal of a master—always hyper-aware of their senses, never quite switching off that part of themselves, no matter where they are or what they’re doing.

Scenes that show Ian, Dustin and Brian individually blind tasting are fascinating – their vast knowledge of terminology, their personal scent catalogues, their complete focus on their senses.

For those of us who don’t travel in this exclusive circle, it seems a little like magic: but is of course a learned skill, and the result of nothing but hard work.

In the end, some will pass and some will not, and that is the reality of a field that prides itself on excellence. What is most striking is the way the sommeliers will pick themselves up and go back, again and again, pushing themselves to achieve their dream.

And when they do it, they will be celebrated by their peers: the only people who really understand what it’s like to put everything on the line to strive for greatness.

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