The title of Wine Sommelier is rich in tradition and has great prestige in today’s culture. Its origins date to the burgeoning French restaurant industry of the early 20^th century, when chefs increasingly needed additional assistance in handling growing wine cellars. Today, the role of a Somm has expanded beyond the dining room. Traditional Somms still exist in fine dining, but modern schools allow Sommeliers to acquire the title and knowledge without a direct connection to the restaurant industry. It’s in this more modern context of what a Wine Sommelier is in which the concept of the Whiskey Sommelier was born.

As of this writing, there is only one place to obtain the title of Whiskey Sommelier: the Whiskey Marketing School in Austin, Texas. The program itself is the brainchild of the current Chancelor at The Wizard Academy, Daniel Whittington. He combined his passion for whiskey with the resources available to him at the marketing school to create a Whiskey Sommelier program. It’s a two-day intensive course where students learn the history of whiskey, develop your palate through blind tastings, and learn how to teach others about whiskey. They stay inside the blueprint of the original wine sommelier program by also focusing on food pairings. Advanced levels of the course, which currently has four levels, are meant to have you apply your knowledge the same way a traditional wine Somm might.

The Whiskey Marketing School is a program that I had heard of through the Academy’s YouTube channel, but I never thought I’d have the chance to attend myself, as it costs several grand for the lessons, lodging, food, and the numerous whiskey samples. However, my family helped pitch in to cover the cost and I was able to attend a level 1 Whiskey Sommelier course in February of 2023, and it was one of the most magical experiences of my life. It’s not just the whiskey knowledge I gained as a part of the course, but the connections I made and the lessons I learned in the non-whiskey portions of the curriculum. I not only learned how to taste whiskey and what to look for in the glass, but also what goes into the glass and how I can use that knowledge in a professional capacity. It’s because of the knowledge and confidence I gained in Texas that I even had the thought to create this brand and start this blog.

Today there are now several whiskey certifications that whiskey connoisseurs, both here in America and abroad in Scotland, can obtain thanks to the whiskey boom. Some are better for certain types of whiskey (Stave and Thief, EWA) and others are better for understanding the inner workings of distilleries (Stave and Thief), but the Whiskey Sommelier program at the Wizard Academy is all encompassing in a way other programs I have seen aren’t, and I would highly recommend the course to anyone serious about making whiskey more than just an expensive hobby. I know that I will continue to do just that both here on this blog and elsewhere.