At the Movies: Somm

Kyle and I recently went on a fun date to O Cinema for a wine tasting and viewing of a new wine documentary, Somm (2013). We love wine and movies, so when I saw this event pop up in my inbox, I knew we had to go.

Somm (2013) follows the crazy hard journey of four sommeliers as they study for the Master Sommelier Exam. If you're not familiar with the work of a sommelier, they are basically wine nerds. They study and aspire to know everything about wine, like the different grape varieties, wine regions, and wine pairings. At a fancy restaurant, a sommelier might come to our table to help us pick a wine that would go well with our meal. That was the extent of my knowledge before seeing Somm.

The Master Sommelier Exam shocked me! I had no idea this level of wine knowledge existed. There are four levels of Sommeliers - Introductory, Certified, Advanced, and Master. The nearly impossible Master Sommelier exam was created by the Court of Master Sommeliers in 1977 and since that time only 202 people IN THE WORLD have reached that level. The exam covers a blind tasting where the applicant has to name every conceivable aspect of a wine, theory of wine such as specific international wine laws, and wine service where the applicant has to service a mock restaurant table.

The guys followed in the film, Brian, Dustin, Ian, and DLynn "bro-out" over wine tastings. Staying up late studying together, getting drunk off tastings (when they aren't using the spitoon), and supporting each other every step of the way. Ian goes days without sleeping, studying thousands of index cards. They are remarkably dedicated to something most people passively enjoy.

I think I'll just stick to drinking it.