Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas pushback

I’m not even sure pushback is the right word. Has anyone else been following Levi Dalton’s tweets today? Brutal stuff. Richard Betts resigned. Heavy.

I enjoy the podcast but don’t do Twitter. What’s going on? I don’t know what CMSA is either,

+1 and his account is private…is that new?

Yeah I guess it’s not shareable. Essentially he nearly passed the advanced master somm exam and they told him, “you’re the kind of person we want to see as a master somm” which led him to not want to be part of the organization.

Here’s some more…

Here’s a link to a blog post in Vinography about Betts resigning. Also in the post is a link to a video from a black woman who aspired to become a Master Somm. She was forced to call her teacher, “master”.

I’ve always been extremely uncomfortable with the Old Boys’ Club vibe of the Court, and witnessed a ton of misogyny, condescension, and other really negative behaviour from CMS types of all levels (including a memorably disgusting comment about a female student from a local inebriated MS). It encourages and cosigns a lot of unproductive behaviour and attitudes and while I hardly think it’s particularly influential in the wine community as a whole, it does occupy a certain space that it doesn’t seem particularly suited to in 2020, hospitality and otherwise.

The Somm movies and some of the wine books I have read gave me a creepy feeling of that whole old-boys network (which I’m pretty sure was not the intent). I couldn’t help but be reminded of Freakonomics where he compares Realtors and others as being “gatekeepers of information” for prestige and economic gain rather than some sense of altruism.

On the whole I applaud anyone who wants to learn more about wine, sell it, make it, become an expert. But status for status’s sake seems to always lead to this type of negative divide.

Yes the culture sounds more than a bit behind the times, by a century or so. Fortunately they aren’t quite the gatekeepers they are perceived to be. Working as a sommelier in NYC, I think the running estimate was maybe half the working somms were certified in any way.

Why was the 2018 exam annulled?

Invalidated: Master Somm Invalidation - WINE TALK - WineBerserkers
Keep up

Thanks Tom for jogging my memory.

I read this earlier in the week and tried to understand the seeming amalgam of the two issues that vex Mr. Betts: the invalidated exam and lack of diversity on the court.

Can anyone knowledgeable tell me if the issues are related?

My interpretation was that, in his view, both of those issues highlight the larger issue of the CMSA board. The board wasn’t transparent in handling the testing scandal nor has it been progressive on diversity and inclusion. Plus its structure limits turnover of the entrenched old guard. That was my read.

Thanks Arturo.

Sometimes the boards of old organizations somehow transition to sustaining the organization rather than sustaining the mission. I have seen it many times before.

Yeah, incompetent handling of the exam, then cover-up to protect their positions of power. The bigger picture is self-interest of a few people at the expense of the best interests of the profession. I’m so sick of self-serving, ignorant, closed-minded, incompetent gatekeepers in various industries. Here, it’s hurting the restaurant industry and the wine industry. We’ve seen it in Hollywood, the music industry, motorsports, etc. Even after they’ve been shown to be wrong, a few years go by and it seems to be forgotten.

I figured you had seen it, just yanking your chain.

Levi’s twitter feed is getting angrier and harder to follow everyday. I need more context about many of the issues he is raising. He does seem to have a big problem with Jason Wise (director of Somm movies).

For those in the industry, is the accreditation generally required for better jobs and does it generally result higher compensation?
A

I would humbly suggest that both this thread and the one about “ever boycott a winery” are political threads masquerading as wine threads, and it would be better for everyone if they were moved to another section of the forum.

I’m not saying it was bad faith on the part of the folks who started the threads. Just that it will not lead to nice places.