I Failed the Certified Sommelier Exam | Here's What Happened

So I failed the Certified Sommelier exam and here's what happened. Why did I want to take the Certified Sommelier exam? At the time it was very helpful for my career and it was a really good resume booster. I had only worked in the suburbs of Chicago as a server and AGM and that was really all of my experience. I didn't know any sums, I had no mentors, so it was going to be a huge boost for me and also I was just so kind of hyper focused on it for so long that I was like, I'm going to do every single one and I did Certified and Intro in the same year and it actually did end up helping me. It helped me get into the Michelin world which is what I love talking to you guys about and what I really enjoy doing. The wine industry has really changed a lot in the last several years especially with COVID and honestly the restaurant industry has changed like crazy since then in like good neutral and negative ways but I'll get into that some other points. I love it, it's a whole thing of like creating an experience for people that I love so much and I think that's why I'm drawn so much to like the Michelin world because it's all about the whole experience of it, at least to me it is, and to a lot of people that I've worked with. But it's such fun work too, I mean you get to meet people from all over the world, there's people who travel all over and they just like go to Michelin restaurants everywhere they go on every single trip. I don't know how they do it but they do and those people are so much fun to talk to when they come in because they'll tell you stories about like the last place they went, some place that's similar, some things that they learned from another place they went because the guests who are coming in are for the most part like really fun because they're so excited to be there and they're just like why did you do that, why did you put that spoon there, why does that silver work go there, why you do this, how does that, how does this work and they, I geek out about it, they geek out about it, it's a whole whole thing. That's what draws me into that type of service and environment and how I kind of got trapped into into that world. When I think about the pressure and expectations of the exam, I mean I took it back in 2019 and I mean at that point everyone that I worked with was like when are you taking it and wanted to know and I didn't tell anybody. I kept that a secret, I told them all that I was taking it, I just didn't tell them when because there's so much pressure and it's like if everyone knows and then you fail it's like oh that sucks, that's like gut-wrenching and you know people have a lot of expectations especially if you are working somewhere and there's possibly a promotion for you, if you pass it then that's like that's a high expectation, some places your employers will pay for it or they'll pay for it if you pass it so that's another huge like pressure point on it too so it's it's really different for everyone. I put a lot of pressure on myself honestly when I took it and yeah it helped me in certain points and in others caused a lot of honestly unnecessary stress so I failed the certified sommelier exam and here's what happened. You go in, day of, check in, get your idea out, everybody's talking about different things, some people are just being really social, other people are sitting down and studying and they're going through like every single last thing that they could possibly think of before going in for the exam and it's a really gosh it's a really weird environment to be in and there's no relaxation whatsoever it's just like high pressure and stress everywhere from everyone and the funny thing is nobody knows what they're talking about so you have people completely freaking out over one thing and another like little tiny little detail that doesn't even matter in the end but I remember when I walked in I felt fairly confident, I was studying really intensely, I was waking up in the morning, getting my books out, studying, doing blind tasting practice, doing tons and tons of theory and then I'd go into work in the evening, use what I learned in my work because I was working as a server and then I'd come home from work at like midnight, study, get out some wine, taste, pass out on the couch, wake up at 2-3 a.m and then go to bed and do the same thing every single day and I did that for several months I felt really prepared for that but it's still it's terrifying and then you wait a little while you walk into this room there's just these like rows of tables and chairs and you have to go sit somewhere and there's a few master sommeliers who are there and they're the ones running everything it's intense like these people who know so much more than you are in front of you and you're like later they're like oh my gosh who do I who am I gonna get for service this is gonna be rough everyone's thinking about that and so then you sit down they go over everything you have the wines already in front of you because at least when I was doing it you do tasting first and then theory and then later everyone is scheduled out at a different time for service so for me I remember sitting down they went over everything how we're gonna do the test they gave some suggestions on pretty much like the best way to break down the test especially with tasting they were like if you're running low on time this is what you pretty much skip over and then come back to in the end so then you sit down they pretty much say go and then you're off when you're done they come around pick up every tasting paper because you do that one written and then you go straight into theory from there there's no break and then they pass it all out at one point go and then you're just like sitting there writing through everything and in the back you hear everybody like papers rustling and you're like oh crap I'm behind everyone and it's it's stressful and it's an expensive exam so you don't want to fail so then you're done with that you walk out of the room because when you're done you just walk up hand it to them and then you're out and there's a written down of what time you have service and then you go do whatever you want until then it's so weird because you go into this room that you are unfamiliar with you have somebody who knows so much and it's like been through this whole process too and just knows like way more than you know that you then you've studied about wine and you're also thinking like I don't even know if I could even still pass because I took these two other parts and I'm not feeling all that confident or I'm feeling really confident but anyway you have almost like a pre-ships meeting and they tell you the name of the restaurant of like our restaurant because it's a mock service here's a special that we have this wine or this white or whatever and you're just going through all of that I don't remember so so many details about it but I remember things that people freaking out of like you have to have like this way your jacket buttoned you need to make sure you have two wine keys on you you have to have your crummer you have this it's not like when I walked in nobody nobody was asking me how many pens do you have on you no but it is really awkward because you walk in and there's one person at your table but it's set for like four or six and it's like oh it's this person's birthday there's no one sitting there so it's you kind of have to almost act and play along so if you're not expecting that it can be really weird to walk into but gosh I remember I was in there and I'm like I'm not doing very well because I already messed up on one thing earlier with the very beginning of service but I'm like I opened that bottle of sparkling wine perfectly and I even like cracked a joke during service and I made the guy laugh and then there was like one guy in the back I saw it out of the corner of my eye I just saw this wine glass fall and just bounce and shatter and that guy actually passed so good for him but I listened to some bad advice that somebody told me they're like hey these people know more than you if you don't totally like 110 know the answer you say I don't know or I will find out for you and I did that way too much because at least half the time I actually knew the answer and I just totally psyched myself out so I miserably failed and you know what I did the first point I'm like and this was coming from me I'm like I have no mentor I don't I've never worked in a tasting menu place I don't know how to do any of this I'd only worked in like casual fine dining and the first thing was do a fight and I bring over only one of the glasses and not all three and I remember he looked at me and he's like where's the two other wines I'm like oh my god so I go back and I bring them over and I just was not ready from there on so that was that was rough and then you have all this time after that because everybody else has to do service and then they have like a ceremony where everyone comes back in nobody knows if they passed or not I know they've changed it um but at this one it was they called out everybody's name who passed so you're standing there and if they didn't call your name at the end you're like oh oh and I remember I was standing next to a door and at one point like I was so overwhelmed I just walked out that door and left I came back but that was rough but you know what I three months later took it again killed it but I mean that's not totally the point of the story it's just because you failed once doesn't mean that you're not going to succeed later I know people who have failed it more than once and then gone back and passed it and done really well and the guy I remember who scored the highest and they'll tell like during that ceremony they will tell you who scored the highest so this guy got up and he told everybody he's like those of you who failed it's like a year ago I was in your place so he failed a year prior worked really hard and then got the top score when he took it again so that happens but I was still really upset that whole time and then I had to drive home two and a half hours in silence just man that really sucked so I've been there and you know what look at where I am now I ended up taking it again passing getting myself into a two michelin star restaurant I've worked now as a captain at sommelier GM beverage director I have had the privilege to work along like some of the fastest industries ever seen and learn from them and you know what now I'm at a point where I have people following me and wanting to learn from me they're just like holy I want to learn how to do what you do and I failed that exam but I still got there so it happens looking back on it and I still I can't I was hard on myself with that first failure but I didn't give myself credit they wrote on my theory portion of the exam like great job exclamation point and I was like I still didn't pass man this one girl who she was saying dumb things after theory that weren't even true she passed somehow and I was being judgmental and dumb but I didn't even give myself credit for something that I did really well on and then I got myself into an actual tasting group with people who mentored me and helped me get a lot better at the finding those skills second time I took it around oh first of all the theory portion of that exam was way tougher than the first one but I still passed anyway the one that I did the worst on the first time service I did really well on the second time and they were really impressed with me and that one that one was hilarious because I like I went into it totally differently I walked into that room I was so confident this time I walked straight in to the front table right in the center and sat down and everybody there were so many people behind me and I'm just like I'm here I'm ready to go let's do this and there's this one uh ms was running it and I remember she looked at me like with this it felt like yeah I like the confidence kind of thing and it just helped me get out of my own head and feel a lot better about it so we get in we start the exam you've no idea how much it helped me to sit ahead of everyone that time because I tuned out everything I couldn't see anybody so by the time we got into theory well first of all we're doing tasting and they're coming around and taking it and I'm like finishing up this last little note I'm like I gotta finish and then they just take it I'm like I finished it got it good went into theory I totally just zoned into it and felt like I couldn't hear or see anything outside of just my little area here and I don't think there's even anyone sitting next to me because this one wasn't full this is just me at this one table and in the front of this huge like ballroom and I hear people going faster than me just a little bit of some pages turning before I finish the first page and then I just zone into it so deep go through all these questions go back and I'm like you know what I know what I know I'm not going to second guess on anything I'm done I walked up handed them my test I turned around and I'm like holy I'm the first one done and I had no idea I had like no concept of time so I was like oh gosh I'm probably one of the last ones just zoned in did my thing got out and I had several hours until my service exam so I was staying at the hotel where we did this went up to my room changed into a bathing suit and went and sat in the pool for like an hour went back to my room got ready went down and talked to the few people who were also waiting had a little bit of chartreuse and then went in and that time I did so much better but you know what's so funny remember how I was talking about that one guy who I saw out of the corner of my eye the glass just like tipped over and broke on the table and he passed the first thing that happened to me I walk in that room we had these flutes that we had to use they were terrible I walk over because we're supposed to start with giving them like sparkling wine on us I don't remember the reason and everything just like tips over and spills directly onto the table and apparently I had a good recovery with the way that I took care of it cleaned it up offered to like move them to another table just like I would in another restaurant and it's so funny because they had them filled with water because apparently this was happening all day that like everyone was doing it but yeah I I was just like on it I studied like the exact wines that they were talking about and asking me about and I was so happy and so thrilled with myself for that and my like theory knowledge helped me a ton that time but I even I got messed up and kind of in my head toward the end of it and for those of you who want to take the exam I know that things have changed with the way they do it now versus when I was doing it but like they want these people want you to pass they're not trying to trick you with anything so one of the last questions they asked me was about beer and I was just like blank couldn't think of anything and I even told them like I'm sorry my mind just went blank sorry about that and he turns to me and he's like there's a really famous one and I just like yelled Guinness everyone in the room could hear me that was how I passed the exam so you can mess up still recovered do really well it's I mean this is how we work in restaurants anyway everybody that you know has failed miserably at something at some point it happens it's how you move on and move forward with it I'm someone who f***ed up and failed miserably and I was horribly upset I had to pay for all of this myself and yeah it made me work really hard to get to the point where I am now and you know what guess what now I've also I've been invited to sit for the advanced exam I've been invited to sit for the master of scotch exam and I came from that point it happens I've run tasting many restaurants I have people asking me to like consult for them because they love what I do and people who want to learn from me and follow me and you can do the same thing so don't just like give up on it you're gonna do really well you got it because if I can do it you can definitely do it it's fun it's a super fun career the way I kind of got into the wine world was like I ADHD too hard and turned a hyper focus into a career and it it really was I just started learning about it I'm like this is kind of cool because I was working as a server had reps come in and talk about it and I'm like that well that makes sense how that kind of works together to create the wine like that and then I got books I started learning and I couldn't stop and then maybe five years after I had started that career I realized what started it because I was like I'm losing my passion for it and realized like I hyper focused on it for so long that I turned it into what I do for a living wow but it's really fun I love it I never want to stop even though it's not like my life revolves around it doesn't have to but you can be like me and be up and then end up doing really well so that's that's the lesson I want to give to you guys and so see you next time bye