Program will soon enable wine connoisseurs to receive sommelier certificates

Admit it. You're an oenophile. Be it a 2-year-old California chardonnay or a 20-year-old French Bordeaux, you love your wine -- all your wine. In fact, some consider you a connoisseur while others just think of you as a grape nut.

Here's the good news: Whether you're a connoisseur or a grape nut, the Food and Beverage Program within the Hospitality School at the College of Southern Nevada is in the final stages of developing a program where students can receive a certificate as a sommelier. The course work is being developed in cooperation with Wirtz Beverage Nevada.

"There's a need within the hospitality industry, both locally and nationally, for qualified sommeliers," said Joe Quagliano, CSN professor and director of the Food and Beverage Management Program within the Hospitality School. "The new course will be offered in addition to the present courses of wine appreciation, liquor and beverage management, and other current food and beverage courses."

Quagliano hopes to have the program in place for the fall 2012 semester. Approximately 30 credits will prepare students to meet the certificate degree and become invited candidates by the Court of Master Sommerliers. If accepted, they can participate in specialized preparation and testing in becoming a master sommelier.

For the record, a sommelier is a wine steward, someone who specializes in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing. Sommeliers need to show proficiency in developing wine lists, wine procurement, storage and rotation, as well as correct service to customers. He or she works with the restaurant's culinary staff in order to build a wine list that complements menu items.

The training of other restaurant staff would also be a responsibility. Contrary to many believing it is strictly limited to wines, a sommelier must be knowledgeable in service, beers, spirits, cocktails, soft-beverages, bottled waters and tobaccos.

Bart Masi is director of operations and marketing for Wirtz Beverage Nevada and has been a CSN trustee since 2001. Over the years, the company has organized numerous fundraising events resulting in hundreds of thousand of dollars for student scholarships in culinary, food and beverage, and hospitality.

"During my time on the board, I have come to understand and appreciate everything that CSN is doing to better educate and train those students who are already in the workplace," Masi said. "Our scholarships are helping those students. The sommelier program becomes another option for them in their culinary career. They will be working with our talented instructors advised by Master Sommelier Thomas Burke."

According to Masi, Las Vegas has the most sommeliers per capita than anywhere else in the world.

"I've watched this phenomenon evolve over the past 38 years," Masi said. "At one time there were no sommeliers in Las Vegas. Now they can be found at all the fine restaurants along with celebrity chefs. The city has developed into one of the finest culinary cities in the world. We're a hospitality capital with an international, sophisticated palate. And why not? Our clientele is global."

Masi has also seen how sommeliers have impacted wine sales and it's all because of social media.

"This group shares vital information every day and they are moving the wine needle to different tastes and newer, more progressive boutique wineries," he explained. "Sommeliers have created new categories with consumers just by being in a restaurant day in and day out and are able to direct customers to wines they have discovered. And these are excellent wines with small quantities from small vineyards. Sommeliers are achieving great influence."