Education
Education is the first crucial step for any aspiring sommelier. Providing a standardised curriculum across international boards lies at the very heart of ASI’s mission.
The modern sommelier stands as a uniquely positioned figure within the gastronomical workplace. Drawing on the highest quality education, a sommelier must learn to add value to the administrative, operative, and experiential elements of any restaurant business.
ASI offers a variety of paths for candidates to begin their journey into the ranks of elite sommellerie. Some service professionals begin their climb up the wine ladder while still in high school, while others move laterally into the career. Reigning ASI Best Sommelier of the World Marc Almert, for example, only began appreciating wine while already well into an apprenticeship in the wider hospitality industry.
Between Bootcamps, Grids, and Tutorials, ASI offers tools that welcome and serve any motivated learner.
The distinguishing mark //
The need for distinguished education among sommeliers has been clear since the earliest days of ASI. Founding father Henry Picot once spoke of the mindset of ASI’s pioneering sommeliers: ASI needed to promote the profession not just so that consumers could understand it better, but also so that restaurant and hotel managers would see that hiring a sommelier was an investment versus an expense.
Rigorous education is our secret ingredient. Today’s international sommeliers are expected to acquire a dizzying amount of information: an encyclopedic knowledge of wine, beverage, and other luxury products at a restaurant; the principles of effective business administration; and the psychology of supreme customer service.
There is a reward for sommeliers who achieve this sterling standard. They become linchpins in the magic of making a restaurant or catering experience into something unforgettable.
What better way to justify the investment?
Formal educational tools //
ASI knows that different people learn best in different ways. Some absorb information most effectively when presented visually; others through the written word; and others still through practical experience. Most through a mix of all of the above.
Between its hands-on Bootcamps, its written Grids, and its visual Tutorials, ASI has prepared all the essential information needed for aspiring international sommeliers to master the knowledge that defines this profession.
Grids & Tutorials
The ASI Grids and Tutorials are two sides of the same coin. Drawing from a shared base of information, they structure their lessons either in writing (Grids) or as video clips (Tutorials) to ensure that no learner is left behind.
The development of these channels is the fruit of a massive, by ASI’s three committees : Education, Exam and Contest.
Bootcamp
The aim of the Bootcamp is to provide sommeliers from around the world with a high quality, intensive 3 days of masterclasses, workshops and tastings.
ASI Partners
