New Orleans CMS Class Aftermath

This was a reply I got from the CMS Master Sommelier, Tim Gaiser. Apparently, they read the blog and wanted to clarify some information with me. Bear in mind, I had wound up at the last row of the class because the Marriot sent me on a wild goose chase about the class' location. So the Wine Zen couldn't really hear all of the information as clearly as he would like plus the breakneck speed of the class didn't help. So I apologize for getting some of the names wrong on the initial blog (heck! how could I have forgotten to include Guy, the MS from Texas.) So my thanks goes out to Tim for his help in keeping the Wine Zen accurate.

Now all I have to do is convince some of these cognac producers to take a refresher class.



On Mon, Feb 9, 2009 at 8:25 AM,

Jonathan, hope all is well. Your latest blog post came up via Google alerts yesterday. Thanks for all the good comments about the class. Much appreciated. I did want to get back to you with some corrections in terms of the content. The instructors included myself, Randa Warren, Brian Koziol, and Guy Stout. To your point, there are over 750 slides presented during the two days and that’s a lot of information—hence the outline hand out that’s taken directly from the PPT. We don’t give students a print out of the PPT for obvious reasons—with the notes form of PPT there would still be well over 250 pages—a lot of wasted paper, certainly environmentally unsound, and a logistically challenging. Also to your point, the CMAA people were given a heads up on what to study several weeks before the class and also a general idea of how the two days would proceed. They also paid more for the class simply because their tuition included meals for both days and a reception after the end of the class--all set up through the CMAA. Keep in mind they were taking the class for credit towards a specific CMAA accreditation. As for other comments, the Cognac subzones are indeed correct and taken from AOC law. The Domaine Baumard you mentioned is from Savennieres and not Sancerre—a totally different animal. Otherwise, thanks again for your time in taking the class and also for posting comments. Please let me know if you have any questions.

My Reply:

Thank you for the corrections. I am honored you took the time to view my blog and offered objective view points to help us all in our journey to enjoy wine.

In New Orleans with the Court of Masters Sommeliers

After 3 days and 2 nights, the Wine Zen is ready to get home. The classes for the Court of Masters Sommeliers Introductory Course were long and there was barely enough time to cover everything we needed to know about wine, let alone spirits, beers and sake. A portion of the class, I was looking forward to learning, cigars, was cancelled flat out.

4 Master Sommeliers Tim Gaiser, Randa Warren, Guy Stout, Brian Koziol, ran the class as well as they could. Tim, Randa and Guy were the veteran MS-es and were able to pull information from their vast stores of travel experience. Brian did not have their vast personal experiences but he made up for it in technical expertise and sheer passion. Everything was there, the professionals and information but the weak link was time. Quite literally it was like taking sips of water from a fire hose.

I pity the folks who came here and thought they were going to be spoon-fed information while having their hands held for this mind job of a class. The frustration started to mount as almost all of the 45+ participants told me that they barely had time to take any notes as frames of PowerPoint slides just zipped by on an average of 20 seconds. I think some were ready to write letters to the CMS through their organizations. In a partial defense to the CMS, people were warned though to do their pre-class readings at least a month ahead of the class date. Of course it would be better if the schedules for 2009 classes came out earlier than the end of December 2008. Still we were warned nevertheless.

With wine retail it isn't as if December was a free time for me, I had managed to skim through most of my reading material and most of the information was already active and used everyday. Still I knew where my weaknesses lay, Burgundy, Italy and Spain. Thankfully, when it came to exam time, these regions were covered pretty generally. I disagreed with some of the information in the course. For example, the classifications for Cognac the CMS listed were very different from the ones actual cognac producers told me. So it boils down to believing the people how learn and teach about cognac or believing the people who actually make and sell the stuff for decades.

The blind tasting portions of the class although not part of the test were a good peek into what was expected of you if you wanted to be a certified sommelier. I must admit, I was not at the top of my game. I had been tasting wine all this time from the stand point of enjoyment and price to quality ratios, not playing guess the wine. So I had to dust off the sections I had long ignored , the visual aspect. To me if a wine tasted good you won't be able to see it go down in your mouth anyway. Furthermore, wine makers everywhere are using a variety of new techniques to make a wine look how they want it to look. One particular white wine I thought was incredibly complex was a Savennieres. It actually threw off blue cheese notes. All the MS-es loved it and it was a fabulous wine but I knew that the majority of the folks would not like this wine. When a vote was taken in the room, 80% did not like the wine. It was the Domaine des Baumard Savennieres 2004. Just goes to show you that it still takes courage to make wine that are really terroir driven. Especially when nobody understands that terroir.

Still the frustration built up so much from striking out so much that there was a time where I questioned my faith in my abilities and my career choice. Then came the last set of wines of 2 whites and 2 reds. I got them all right down to the varietals, region and even vintage, something I have always had a problem doing blind. (Whew! Now I don't have to take a welding course and do construction.)

So yours truly is now one step closer to being a certified sommelier. I think the classes were informative and fun but I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that for almost $500 per person and having to fly to New Orleans and book a room at the hotel, the least the CMS could do was give us a copy of the PowerPoint slides in print. We didn't get to keep that. Still it could be worse, I could have been part of another group there that had a joint function with CMS and had pay close to $900 per person. Yikes!