Get to Know ‘Somm Essentials’

Get to Know ‘Somm Essentials’

David Glancy Explains the Importance of His School’s Latest Program

Somm Essentials is a 2-week intensive program developed by Master Sommelier David Glancy to provide broad knowledge across multiple beverage categories for students starting out in the food & beverage industry or those looking to polish their skills or broaden their skill base. It offers students a unique convergence of industry and product knowledge with service and tasting skills that are critical to staying competitive in today’s hospitality industry.The purpose of the program is to help students develop a solid, high-performance foundation for all beverage-related career tracks. It is ideal for waiters, bartenders, foodservice managers, tasting room staff, and food writers, as well as those pursuing sommelier and other wine credentials.

The program includes preparation for the Hospitality/Beverage Specialist credential from the Society of Wine Educators, but goes far beyond it in scope, rigorously covering beverage service, blind wine tasting, and food and wine pairing—all areas necessary to move your career to the next level.  Importantly, the program also goes beyond wine and includes education on the fundamental elements and styles of tea, coffee, bottled water, beer, wine, sake, and spirits, as well as each of their production techniques. The Official Society of Wine Educators’ Hospitality/Beverage Specialist Study Guide is included in enrollment as a supplement to instructor guidance and additional educational materials from San Francisco Wine School.

Guided Tasting:
Students will taste over 30 wines and 10 beers/spirits throughout the course of the program to enhance reinforce the learning objectives, lectures, discussions, and reading.

David Glancy, Master Sommelier, on the importance of Somm Essentials: “Based on my experience as a Master Sommelier and helping hundreds of students earn their Certified Sommelier titles,” explains Glancy “there is a clear need to provide a robust overview of the beverage and wine world before delving more deeply into wine regions. Attaining a deeper understanding of coffee, tea, spirits, mixology, beer, and sake before students fine tune their wine knowledge, will give their education a much better platform for success. So often these areas are forgotten until higher levels of study, and in my opinion that leads to a disconnect. There are so many important parallels and common themes across the beverage world. Students should internalize them from the start to serve a client base that is growing more sophisticated by the day. In addition, I have seen too many students in CSW or pursuing sommelier-level education who lacked crucial service and blind tasting skills, I knew I wanted to cover those aspects in our foundation-level program. From a wine career perspective, they are skills that must be introduced correctly early on.”

Credential and Certification:
Somm Essentials serves as an important stepping-stone toward the challenging Certified Specialist of Wine exam and many career paths within the wine and beverage industry. With continued study, tasting, and service practice, students will have a jump start in preparing for the Court of Master Sommeliers’ first two levels of exams and comparable exams from other credentialing organizations. There are three parts to the Somm Essentials Exam. Students must pass all three parts to earn their Somm Essentials Certificate.

  • Service: Students will be tested on service and wine paring though a hands-on practical examination.
  • Tasting: Students will blind taste 2 wines and provide a written analysis.
  • Theory: The Hospitality/Beverage Specialist Credential exam from the Society of Wine Educators represents the theory portion of the Sommelier Essentials exam. Students who pass this portion will earn the Hospitality/Beverage Specialist Credential.

  • Sample Study Questions for Somm Essentials:
    What is the difference between Arabica and Robusta coffee?
    Does green and black tea come from the same species of tea plant?
    What types of barrels are used in the production of scotch?
    What are the classic flavor components and styles of gin?
    Which ingredients in beer making are responsible for flavors versus fermentation?
    What are the various factors that influence the style and quality of sake?
    What are bud break, flowering, and verasion and when do they occur?
    What red grapes thrive in cooler regions?
    What are the prominent sites for Riesling around the world?
    What are the proper serving temperatures for all types of wine?
    How can the growing climate and grape variety be determined in a blind tasting?

    Check out our full schedule of programs, workshops and public events. Private, customized experiences and corporate training is also available.

     

    Widen your wine knowledge and learn more about our Somm Essentials program

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