History of the Sommelier Profession in the United States

The sommelier profession in the United States has a compressed but surprisingly dramatic arc — from post-Prohibition obscurity to a nationally recognized credential structure in less than a century. This page traces that arc: how the role emerged, how it institutionalized, the inflection points that shaped its current form, and where the lines fall between a wine-educated server and a credentialed professional.

Definition and scope

A sommelier, in the strictest functional sense, is a trained wine service professional responsible for a restaurant's beverage program — procurement, list construction, staff education, tableside service, and food-and-wine pairing guidance. In the United States, the title carries no statutory licensing requirement; unlike a physician or attorney, anyone can print "sommelier" on a business card. What separates the title from the credential is certification, and that distinction has become the organizing principle of the profession since the 1970s.

The scope has expanded considerably beyond white-tablecloth restaurants. Sommeliers now work in non-restaurant settings including retail, hospitality consulting, auction houses, and corporate beverage programs — a diversification that reflects both the growth of wine culture in the United States and the portability of the underlying knowledge base.

How it works

The institutional history of the U.S. sommelier profession runs through two major discontinuities: Prohibition and the founding of credentialing bodies.

The Volstead Act of 1919, which enforced the 18th Amendment, effectively erased the hospitality wine culture that had been developing in American cities since the mid-19th century. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the existing knowledge infrastructure — the master sommeliers, the wine merchants, the French-trained cellar staff in grand hotels — had largely dissolved or emigrated. The profession had to rebuild from imported expertise and modest domestic resources.

The rebuilding was slow. For nearly four decades after repeal, "sommelier" remained an informal designation in the United States, associated almost entirely with fine French restaurants in New York and a handful of other cities. No domestic credentialing body existed. The title was essentially self-assigned.

That changed in 1977, when the Court of Master Sommeliers established its examination program in the United Kingdom and began extending its reach to North America. The Master Sommelier Diploma — awarded to candidates who pass four examinations covering theory, service, and blind tasting — became the profession's most demanding benchmark. As of the most recent published figures from the Court of Master Sommeliers, fewer than 270 individuals worldwide hold the Master Sommelier Diploma, a number that illustrates the examination's historical pass rates in the single-digit percentages for the final stage.

The Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET), founded in London in 1969, entered the U.S. market more broadly in the 1990s, offering a parallel credential structure oriented toward wine knowledge rather than restaurant service specifically. By the 2000s, WSET's Level 3 and Level 4 Diploma programs had become standard benchmarks for wine buyers, educators, and hospitality professionals who were not pursuing the service-centered Court of Master Sommeliers track.

The Society of Wine Educators, a U.S.-based organization founded in 1977, added a third credentialing pathway oriented specifically toward wine education rather than restaurant service, broadening the professional landscape further.

Common scenarios

The modern U.S. sommelier career tends to follow one of three recognizable trajectories:

Restaurant track — Entry through floor service, progression from wine-focused server to assistant sommelier to head sommelier, with certification pursued in parallel. The Court of Master Sommeliers path dominates this track, with the Introductory and Certified Sommelier examinations serving as early benchmarks.
Education and retail track — Wine knowledge credentials (WSET Level 3 or Diploma, Certified Wine Educator through the Society of Wine Educators) pursued by professionals in wine education, retail buying, or corporate hospitality. Less emphasis on tableside service protocol, more on breadth of regional knowledge.
Career transition track — Professionals from finance, law, medicine, or other fields entering the wine industry in their 30s or 40s, often through structured programs. Resources on transitioning to a sommelier career from other fields address this cohort specifically, as the study approach differs substantially from someone who began in restaurants at 22.

Decision boundaries

The sharpest distinction in the professional landscape is between the Court of Master Sommeliers and WSET at the advanced level — not because one is superior, but because they assess different competencies. The Advanced Sommelier examination includes a rigorous practical service component; the WSET Diploma does not. A candidate choosing between them is effectively choosing between a service-performance credential and a knowledge-depth credential.

A second meaningful line falls between the Certified Sommelier and Advanced Sommelier levels within the Court of Master Sommeliers structure. The pass rate differential is significant — the Advanced examination historically sees pass rates below 30 percent, compared to roughly 65–70 percent for the Certified level — and the preparation demands differ in kind, not just degree. Candidates moving into the Advanced level are not simply studying more; they are developing a different quality of sensory and service precision.

The full sommelier certification programs overview maps these pathways in comparative detail, including cost structures and typical preparation timelines. For anyone tracing their own path through this profession, understanding how the institutional history shaped the current credential landscape — why there are multiple competing bodies, why no single license exists, why service and knowledge were separated into distinct tracks — is the most useful context the history provides. The sommelier education resource index provides a structured entry point into that full body of material.

References

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