What Does it Take to Become a Master Sommelier?

Only eight people in Australia can call themselves a master sommelier but as these top somms will tell you, achieving excellence is a group effort.

Finding one of Australia’s eight master sommeliers working a restaurant floor is rare but Tokyo-born, Melbourne (Naarm)-based sommelier Yuki Hirose, who oversees wine for Lucas Restaurants (Society, Kisumé and Chin Chin among them) makes time to do just that. “You still want to stand in front of a guest with a wine and say, ‘Hey, ask me anything!’” Do, and he’ll likely have the answer. Passing the final Court of Master Sommeliers exam is an exceptional achievement, marking a sommelier as an expert with an elite level of proficiency and knowledge.

For Hirose, earning the master sommelier (MS) diploma took five attempts: “You come back defeated then you go again.” Each time, he flew himself to London or Vienna to sit the exam, a punishingly difficult combination of theory, blind tasting and wine service tests. Having spent 10 years, thousands of hours and tens of thousands of dollars on the endeavour, he credits his August 2023 success to a combination of luck, effort and support.

Adrian Filiuta at Hunters Hill Wine Room

Adrian Filiuta of boutique wine store Hunters Hill Wine Room in Sydney (Warrane) earned his diploma in 2017. The experience “was a personal challenge, to see if I could do it”. When Hirose was based in Sydney, working for Rockpool Bar & Grill, he and Filiuta would prep for exams by tasting together every weekend, working to identify everything from flavour profile to varietal, producer and vintage without looking at the label. “You cannot pass without people helping you,” says Filiuta. “Even now, I’m mentoring others through the process. There’s a lot of satisfaction in seeing them succeed.”

If you’re reading this article on a plane and have a glass of wine in hand, chances are your choice was influenced by a master sommelier. In 2013, Sebastian Crowther became the second person based in Australia to pass their MS exam. He is part of the selection team for the Qantas in-flight wine lists, which took out a host of gongs at this year’s Cellars in the Sky Awards, including gold medals in nine categories, Best Overall Cellar among them. According to Crowther, the annual blind tasting places a focus on Australian drops and contemporary “lighter, fresher styles”.

A decade after achieving his MS qualification, Crowther hones his craft through ongoing tastings. “If you’re completely immersed in the industry and it’s something that you live and breathe, you naturally stay on top of trends. Almost by osmosis, you navigate through what seems to be working in the market and what people are drinking, plus what’s going out of favour.”

The benefits of the intense training required by the MS program are not limited to building an exceptional wine list, which, as Filiuta says, means one with depth across regions and pricepoints, prepared for the customer, not the wine buyer.

At Melbourne fine-diner Society, Hirose and head sommelier Loïc Avril, who plans to sit his MS exam again next year, have built up a 1500-bottle cellar that ranges from South Africa to Switzerland (via Domaine de la Romanée-Conti) to complement executive chef Luke Headon’s French- and Japanese-accented mod-Oz menu. “Yuki and Loïc are able to communicate what they can taste really well,” says Headon. Which is not just great for guests – “It enhances the experience for the chefs, too.”

The Master of Wine (MW) program is an alternative to the MS, though it doesn’t apply exclusively to sommeliers. With its more theoretical approach, it appeals to a wider pool of candidates, including winemakers and wine writers. In Australia, 28 people hold this qualification, which, while no less gruelling than the MS, has been offered here for longer. It’s possible to attain both and Singapore-based Australian Benjamin Hasko has recently achieved just this feat – becoming one of only five people to do so in the world.

Anthony Pieri, wine buyer and head sommelier at Gimlet at Cavendish House in Melbourne, sat the MW exam in 2019. “I can absolutely say, it was the most stressful, arduous thing that I have ever done professionally,” he says. “The stakes are so high. It all culminates in this three-day exam. I failed. Most people do. The pass rate on the first go is nearly zero.” While Pieri hasn’t booked in for round two (yet), he has no regrets. “That time evolved me into a better taster, a better wine professional. It was instrumental to where I am now.”

At Gimlet, where Pieri works the floor, head chef Colin Mainds runs menu ideas past him before he even starts cooking. “We’ll talk about ingredients and seasonings, about the complexity of the dish, so he can think about a wine match,” says Mainds. They’ll bounce back and forth as the recipe evolves, adjusting bitterness, sweetness and acidity until they hit the right notes on the menu and in the glass. For instance, a dish of corn-fed chicken with creamy celeriac was missing the savoury element needed to match perfectly with an exciting new gamay from France until, as Pieri recounts, the two worked together to settle on a solution. The addition of madeira and rosemary “completed the picture”.

For many sommeliers, however, sitting the profession’s most difficult exams isn’t a career goal, says Bridget Raffal, co-owner of Sydney’s Marrickville wine bar Where’s Nick, which won Best Wine Bar List in last year’s Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards. Raffal is also vice-president of nonprofit group Sommeliers Australia. “A lot of brilliant sommeliers don’t hold the MS qualification and are not interested in achieving it,” she says, noting that on-the-job learning from colleagues and mentors remains crucial: “You’ve got to taste with people who have a better palate than you.”

Polly Mackarel, joint winner of the 2023 Judy Hirst Award and head sommelier at King Clarence in Sydney, agrees that regardless of qualifications, the profession calls for constant curiosity. “You’re always reading, always learning and always tasting. It’s a job and a passion; you are really in it all the time.”

At Society, Hirose and Avril “have this contagious energy for learning”, says Headon. “It’s like they’re masters of hospitality as well. It’s an insatiable appetite to keep pushing.” And while the letters MS or MW may signify the ultimate wine world achievement, says Pieri, “Let’s never lose sight of what we’re here for – to give people delicious things to eat and drink.”