Do you need to hire a sommelier? If you’re in the fine wine or hospitality business, working with a trained professional increases your customer experience. While this position may seem suited for “anyone” who can pour wine, these experts require:
- Extensive certification
- Expertise to be in the field
A certified sommelier offers wine pairing recommendations, cellar management and can even help train existing staff on the current vintages and pairings.
If you’re unsure if you need one of these experts on your team, this guide will help.
Know What Level of Sommelier Do You Need?
Restaurant staffing is a lot harder than it looks. You can hire waitstaff easily, but when it comes to a wine expert for restaurant drink recommendations, you need the right level sommelier .
What levels are there?
- Introductory: A beginner in the field. While these pros have been practicing for three years, at minimum, in the beverage industry, they’re still not at the same level as the next tiers on the list.
- Certified: Proficient in theory, service skills and tasting, a certified sommelier is one who has vast knowledge of wine production, regions and grape varieties.
- Advanced: Do you run a fine dining restaurant? If so, an advanced sommelier may be your best option. These professionals can manage your wine list, train others on the best pairings and also run a restaurant. On top of all of this, an advanced-level sommelier can pass blind test tastings and various service components.
- Master: If you want the best of the best sommelier in the world by your side, it doesn’t get much better than a Master certification. Years of study and practice in the field lead someone from an advanced to a master sommelier. As leaders in the wine industry, these pros can also educate your staff.
Even with a restaurant hiring guide, there’s a good chance that you don’t know which level of sommelier you need.
Understand Your Needs
Your own, unique requirements will dictate the type of sommelier you need:
- Do you need someone to evaluate your existing menu and wine program?
- What expertise level is necessary to create compelling wine pairings?
- Is training and development something that you need?
- Does the sommelier need to collaborate with the front of house or kitchen staff?
- Who will manage your wine inventory and stock rotation?
Restaurant owners and managers should also take the time to understand the opportunities that they can offer the sommelier. Wine professionals like these want to attend events and tastings to advance their careers, and this is something that you can offer them.
Write a Sommelier Job Description That Attracts the Right Candidates
Be specific and honest when writing your job description.
- Cover the essentials, including the sommelier qualifications you require. Include the size and style of your wine program and the sommelier’s duties.
- Be upfront about compensation. Serious candidates typically skip vague listings.
- Write like a person. Describe your restaurant’s culture and what makes your wine program special.
Advertise Your Job Opening
Hiring a sommelier is very different from your typical restaurant staff hiring. To find the right candidate, you need to reach the right audience.
Along with job boards and social media, consider promoting your opening with:
- Industry-specific platforms. Sites like SevenFifty, Sommeliers Anonymous and Beverage Trade Network are great ways to connect directly with wine professionals who are actively looking for employment.
- Distributors. There’s a good chance that your wine and spirits reps work with sommeliers. They may know and refer potential candidates.
Interview Candidates
Conducting interviews is a natural next step once candidates start submitting their applications. But your interviews should go beyond just the resume. Use this as an opportunity to assess the candidate’s:
- Palate
- Knowledge
- Fit for your restaurant
Apart from the usual interview questions, you could also conduct:
- A practical testing, where candidates blind taste two or three wines representative of your list. Yes, they should be able to identify the grape, but beyond that, pay attention to how they communicate. Great sommeliers can describe a wine in a way that makes someone want to order a glass (or bottle).
- Technical knowledge tests. Ask a candidate to explain how they would build a wine list around your cuisine and price points. Or ask them to share how they managed difficult situations, such as guests who send back wines or managing cellar inventory. Their behavior in a real-world scenario will be very telling.
Review References and Background Checks
Interviewing is an important step, but before you select a candidate, take the time to review their references and run background checks.
Hiring a sommelier means entrusting someone with a high-value wine inventory and giving them significant purchasing authority. They’ll also impact the guest experience, so due diligence is crucial here.
Make sure that you:
- Verify credentials directly. Typically, sommelier credentials can be verified by the issuing organization itself, whether from WSET, the Court of Master Sommeliers or the Society of Wine Educators. Don’t just rely on the applicant’s resume. Verify the information yourself.
- Be thorough when checking references. Ask previous employers about how the candidate managed inventory, vendor relationships and wine loss or discrepancies. These are key areas that are just as important as the wine recommendations themselves.
- Run a standard background check. Sommeliers often have unsupervised access to cellars with tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in inventory. Background checks are expected, but make sure you follow your state’s applicable employment screening laws. Any history of fraud or theft could be a red flag.
A thorough vetting of each potential candidate is important, so don’t cut corners during this stage.
Select a Candidate & Make an Offer
At this stage, you should have a clear idea of who you want to hire. Make them an offer that includes:
- A competitive salary
- Benefits
- Growth opportunities
Consider having one or two applicants in mind as alternatives if your first choice does not accept your offer.
Once you’ve hired someone, make sure that you onboard and train them effectively. Support them with all of the tools and information they need to excel in their roles.
Not only should they understand your restaurant’s wine program, but they should also be trained to align with your customer service standards.
The Takeaway
A sommelier can really enhance the wine service in restaurants, but to maximize the benefits of their service, you need to hire the right candidate.
That means taking the time to evaluate each applicant’s credentials and experience carefully. Having a clear job description that aligns with your needs will attract qualified candidates, making it even easier to narrow down your options.