n TASTE
Wine professionals participate in a biweekly
tasting group hosted by Elizabeth-Rose Man-
dalou at Allora.
50
comstocksmag.com | March 2019
both studying for the Master Sommelier
exam at the time. Both the Advanced and
the final-level Master Sommelier exams
consist of service and theory sections, as
well as the blind tasting portion. Fergel
and Reed both failed the Master Somme-
lier exam, which boasts a failure rate of
90 percent, in 2015, 2016 and 2017, forc-
ing them to sit out the 2018 test.
“At this highest level of examination,
you are studying the minutiae of wine,”
Reed says. “Anything that you could pos-
sibly see on a wine label from every ma-
jor wine-producing country in the world,
you should know what it means.”
In other words, you don’t just need
to know about soil content at various
elevations, you need to know it in multi-
ple languages. The exam isn’t limited to
wine either, as every test features a few
questions about spirits, cocktails and
miscellaneous beverages like coffee, tea
and even bottled water.
While Fergel is already immersed in
studying for the 2019 exam, Reed isn’t
ready to put himself through that “hell-
ish study” again. Mandalou is preparing
to take the exam in 2020.
“Through the Court of Master Som-
meliers, you have to be driven because
there’s no syllabus, there’s no class
that you can take to learn everything,”
she says.
Only nine people have ever passed
it on their first attempt, but the 30-year-
old Mandalou believes she’s up to the
task. “A lot of people say that I over-
study,” she says. “I’m never satisfied with
the knowledge that I have, I’m always
wanting more.” n
Daniel Barnes is a freelance writer and
member of the San Francisco Film Crit-
ics Circle. His work has appeared in the
Sacramento Bee, Sacramento News
& Review, East Bay Express, Philadel-
phia Weekly and San Antonio Current,
among others.