How to Become a Sommelier: Costs, Time and Which Route

How to become a sommelier comes down to one bottleneck: restaurant time. You can take the first course this month with no job, but the Court of Master Sommeliers will not admit you to its third level until you have worked a restaurant floor for two years.

How to Become a Sommelier, in One Paragraph

Take the Court of Master Sommeliers Introductory course ($649 online or $949 in person, as of November 2026), then get a job on the floor, the dining room where a sommelier sells and serves wine. After about a year, sit the Certified exam: a written blind tasting of four wines (tasted without seeing the label), a theory paper and a tableside service test. Two years of service work opens the Advanced course ($1,899), and three years opens its exam. Master Sommelier comes last, at $999 per practical section. If you want wine work away from restaurants, the WSET ladder asks for no job at all.

What Does Each Step Cost, and How Long Does It Take?

The Introductory course costs $649 online or $949 in person, and the bill grows with each level: the Advanced course alone is $1,899. Fees are the Court's Americas prices in US dollars, read on its own pages in November 2026.

Level	Fee (Nov 2026)	Exam	Entry rule	Book it when
Introductory	$649 online (wines extra) or $949 in person (wines included)	70 multiple-choice questions in 45 minutes; 60% to pass	Age 21 or over	Now, before any job
Certified	Not listed on the exam page; see the Court's calendar	One day: 4 wines tasted blind in writing, 45 theory questions, tableside service; 60% on all sections in one sitting	Introductory passed; 3 years in the trade strongly suggested	After about a year of study and floor work
Advanced	$1,899 course, $399 theory exam, $100 application	Theory, tasting and service; 60% on each within one calendar year	Certified passed; course needs 2 years of restaurant service or sales, exam needs 3	Once you have held a floor job for two years
Master Sommelier Diploma	$100 application, $999 per practical section	Oral theory, six wines tasted blind, service and business; 75% in each	Advanced passed	When you pass Advanced and can study for years

The listed Advanced fees add up to $2,398 before travel or wine. If the budget is tight, take the online Introductory and split the tasting wines with a friend. The Certified exam fee is not on its exam page, so check it before booking.

Should You Get a Restaurant Job or Take a Course First?

Course first, job soon after: the Introductory course needs no job, but the Advanced course needs two years of restaurant service and its exam needs three. The Court opens the Introductory to anyone 21 or over, including people who are just curious about wine.

The clock starts with the job. For the Certified exam, the Court strongly suggests three years in the trade but does not require them. At the Advanced level the rule is hard. The course needs two years in a restaurant service or sales role. The exam needs three years within the last seven, and a current job in the restaurant, hospitality or drinks trade.

If you want the Advanced pin, take a floor job within a year of passing the Introductory, because every month before that job pushes the Advanced exam back by a month.

The service test is where floor time shows. Pouring in order, opening a bottle cleanly and talking a guest through a list are habits, and a working shift practises them every night. What a sommelier actually does covers that day job.

How Long Does It Take to Become a Sommelier?

The Court of Master Sommeliers publishes no total time to Master Sommelier, so the useful answer is a set of minimums. The Introductory course runs about a day and a half to two days in person, or up to six months online.

The Court suggests a year of study between Introductory and Certified, and at least one calendar year between passing Certified and taking the Advanced course.

The Advanced exam is the steep part: all three sections must be passed within one calendar year. For a newcomer, the three-year work rule makes it at least three years away whatever the study pace.

Master Sommelier starts with the oral theory exam. Pass it, and you have three consecutive years to pass tasting and service, or all three parts must be taken again.

How Much Do Sommeliers Earn?

No official figure exists: the US Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes no sommelier category. Its nearest published category is bartenders, with a median pay of $34,340 a year in 2025, and that number describes bartenders, so do not read it as sommelier pay. Precise sommelier salaries online come from aggregator sites, and they disagree with each other.

Can You Work in Wine Without a Restaurant Job?

Yes: the WSET ladder asks for no job at any level, so it suits work in shops, at importers, in writing and in teaching. Its three upper levels test wine knowledge, with tasting from Level 3, and no service exam and no years of work to log first.

• Level 2 has no entry requirements: 16 hours of teaching, 11 of private study and a one-hour exam of 50 multiple-choice questions.
• Level 3 is 30 hours of teaching inside at least 84 hours in total, with Level 2 recommended first.
• The Level 4 Diploma needs Level 3 and normally takes between 18 months and 3 years, according to WSET.

WSET course fees are set by each course provider, so compare quotes. The WSET vs Court of Master Sommeliers comparison sets out the two ladders level by level.

Which Route Fits You?

Pick the route by the job you want in three years, because the two ladders train for different rooms: the Court for the dining room, WSET for the shop, the import office and the classroom. Start with the line that matches.

• Pick the Court ladder to run wine service in a restaurant. Book the Introductory now and a floor job within the year.
• Pick WSET Level 2, then Level 3 to sell, import, write about or teach wine without restaurant shifts.
• Pick both for a restaurant career with deeper theory; neither ladder requires the other.
• Pick a free course or an app first if wine as a job is still a maybe. Online wine courses sorts the free options by goal.

Sommy, for practice between classes

Sommy is the app we build: a wine learning app for iPhone with short lessons built on picture questions and quizzes. One of its goals is passing a level 1 or level 2 wine exam, and Sommy lays its courses out as one path for it. More than 20 courses cover Wine 101, regions from France to Chile and Argentina, styles, blind tasting and fine wine.

Guided tasting starts from a photo of the bottle's label and saves the note in a tasting journal. Sommy is independent and is not an official prep course for any exam; it suits practice between classes. Free to start on iPhone. A classroom course is the better pick for live service practice and a certificate.

What Should You Do This Month?

Test the tasting side at home before paying for anything. The Certified exam asks for four wines described blind, and the deductive tasting method behind the Court's tasting exams runs look, smell, structure, then a conclusion on grape, region and age.

If the blind tasting hooked you, book the Introductory and look for floor work; if the theory did, book WSET Level 2. The blind wine tasting tips cover the setup, how to taste wine like a sommelier the full method, and the beginners and buying hub what to read next.

Pour two wines into identical glasses tonight, hide the bottles and write your four structure scores before you look.

Sources

1. Introductory Sommelier Course and Examination — Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas
2. Certified Sommelier Examination — Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas
3. Advanced Sommelier Course and Examination — Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas
4. Master Sommelier Diploma Examination — Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas
5. Level 2 Award in Wines — WSET
6. Level 3 Award in Wines — WSET
7. Level 4 Diploma in Wines — WSET
8. Bartenders: Occupational Outlook Handbook — US Bureau of Labor Statistics