How to pass the Certified Sommelier exam with AI as your study partner

The short answer: the Certified Sommelier exam has three parts, theory, blind tasting and service, and you need 60% in each, at the same sitting. AI makes the theory faster and helps you rehearse the words of tasting and service. It can't taste and it can't carry a tray. Nothing makes this exam easy; AI makes your hours count.

I passed the Certified with the Court of Master Sommeliers on 4 September 2014, and the Advanced in 2019. Back then my study partners were books, flashcards and a tasting group. Here is how I would add AI to that today.

The exam at each Court

In Europe you need the Introductory first, and must take the Certified within three years of passing it. The Court of Master Sommeliers Europe asks for a minimum of ten weeks of pre-study. Check the current rules with your Court: Europe or the Americas.

What AI can do, and what it can't

In March 2023, OpenAI's GPT-4 Technical Report put its model through simulated sommelier theory exams. GPT-4 scored 86% on Certified Sommelier theory knowledge; the older GPT-3.5 scored 58%, below the pass mark. Two lessons. AI now knows the theory well enough to be a serious study partner. And it can still be wrong often enough that you must check it. Those were theory questions only: no AI sat a tasting or a service exam. Those parts are yours.

Theory: let AI quiz you every day

• Plan from the exam date backwards. “My exam is in ten weeks. Build a weekly plan covering the Certified theory, with the big regions first and a review week at the end.” Then check the plan against your Court's syllabus.
• Ten questions a day, one at a time: “Ask me ten questions on the German Prädikat levels, getting harder each time.”
• Practise short answers: “Give me five short-answer questions on Rioja's ageing terms and mark my answers.”
• Match the format. For the Americas: “Make a matching exercise: ten Loire appellations and their main grapes.” And simple maths: “Three questions on glasses per bottle and cost percentage.”
• Ask for the why. “Why is Mosel Riesling so often low in alcohol?” Understanding sticks; lists fade.
• Check the surprising answers in your course material. If the AI and the Court disagree, the Court wins.

For the full theory map, region by region, see my Certified theory guide.

Tasting: AI can't taste, but it can drill the grid

• Learn the grid's order by heart. “Quiz me on the Court's deductive grid for a red wine, in order, one step at a time.”
• Learn the classic markers, then taste them: “What separates Sancerre from Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc on the nose and palate?” Then open both.
• Paste your own note after a blind tasting: “Here is my note. What did I leave out, compared with the grid?”
• Use a timer. In the Americas, four wines in 45 minutes is about eleven minutes a wine.
• Taste with people. No app replaces a tasting group that pours for you blind.

Service: rehearse the words, then the hands

• Let AI play the guest. “You're a guest ordering Champagne for a table of four. Ask me two questions about it, then change your mind.” Answer out loud.
• Pairing drills. “Give me a dish. I'll recommend a wine; push back on my choice.”
• Then practise with your hands: real bottles, real glasses, a friend at the table, following your Court's service standards. My guide to the Certified practical exam walks through it.

A week with AI in it

Where SOMM DIGI AI fits

I built SOMM DIGI AI for exactly this. Honest about it: I didn't build my own AI model. I taught today's best AI to talk wine like a sommelier, using my own Advanced Sommelier exam notes. For a Certified candidate:

• 35 Certified flashcard decks, with native audio in nine languages, so you hear the names said right.
• 3,000+ exam-prep questions and quizzes.
• Blind tasting and wine-list drills, and pronunciation help for service.
• Free to start, with no card.

Test yourself

Questions people ask