Court of Master Sommeliers
Best for: Restaurant professionals seeking a service-focused wine credential with strong name recognition in the U.S. hospitality market.
Main credentials: Introductory Sommelier, Certified Sommelier, Advanced Sommelier, and Master Sommelier Diploma.
Format: In-person courses and exams, usually held in hotels, conference spaces, and rented venues.
Strength: The Master Sommelier Diploma remains one of the most recognized restaurant-service wine credentials in the United States.
Watch-out: The organization has faced major scandals involving exam integrity, sexual misconduct, governance, and transparency.
SOMM verdict: The Court of Master Sommeliers remains a powerful credentialing body for restaurant-service professionals, but candidates should weigh its prestige against its cost, opaque exam structure, and serious institutional history.
About the Court of Master Sommeliers
The Court of Master Sommeliers certifies wine professionals through one of the most demanding service-oriented wine exam programs in the world. Its highest credential, the Master Sommelier Diploma, carries significant prestige in restaurants, hotels, and fine-wine service.
That prestige comes with a complicated institutional record. In recent years, the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas has faced public scandals involving sexual misconduct, exam cheating, governance failures, and questions about transparency. Prospective candidates should understand both sides of the organization before investing time, money, and professional identity into the credential.
For a detailed guide to CMS levels, exams, costs, and certification path, see our Court of Master Sommeliers guide.
A Reckoning Long Overdue
In October 2020, The New York Times reported that 22 women had accused prominent Master Sommeliers of sexual harassment, assault, or rape. The named individuals included Geoff Kruth, known to many viewers from the documentary Somm, along with Robert Bath, Fred Dame, Drew Hendricks, Matt Stamp, and others.
The fallout was immediate. Within weeks, the Court suspended 11 members, and the entire board of the Americas chapter resigned under pressure.
The scandal did not emerge in isolation. A 2020 Change.org petition, signed by nearly 1,100 people at various stages of training and certification, including at least 18 Master Sommeliers, called for a full board replacement. The petition cited not only sexual misconduct, but also the Court’s failure to express clear support for the BIPOC community and its mishandling of a cheating scandal two years earlier.
After a third-party investigation, six Master Sommeliers were stripped of their titles and removed from the organization in November 2021. The group included Fred Dame, widely credited with founding the Americas chapter in 1987.
The impact on enrollment was severe. In 2019, the Americas chapter reported 8,081 students enrolled in its courses. In 2020, that number fell to 1,325.
The 2018 Cheating Scandal
Before the sexual-misconduct scandal became public, the Court was already facing a crisis over the integrity of its exams.
In October 2018, the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas voted to suspend the diplomas of 23 of the 24 candidates who had passed that year’s Master Sommelier exam at the Four Seasons Hotel St. Louis. The reason was that board member Reggie Narito had leaked advance information about two of the six wines used in the blind tasting section.
The board’s internal investigation drew criticism for being too limited and potentially conflicted. The controversy deepened when a 2021 investigation by Vice reported that the board had been aware of cheating concerns nearly a decade earlier and had taken no public disciplinary action beyond tightening procedures for a later exam.
The 2018 mass invalidation remains one of the most damaging episodes in the Court’s history. It raised a basic question that still matters to candidates: if the exam is the source of the credential’s authority, how transparent and accountable is the organization that controls it?
What the Court of Master Sommeliers Is
The Court of Master Sommeliers was formally established in England in April 1977, though the Master Sommelier Diploma dates to 1969, when the first exam was held at Vintners’ Hall in London.
The original organizing bodies included the Vintners’ Company, the Institute of Masters of Wine, the British Hotels & Restaurants Association, the Wine & Spirit Association of Great Britain, and the Wholesale Tobacco Trade Association. The purpose was clear: the British wine trade wanted a formal credential for high-level restaurant wine service.
Cyril Ware, Danny Lydon, and George Clarke were the first people to pass the Master Sommelier Diploma exam.
The Americas chapter was established in 1987 and held its first exam in Monterey, California. Today, the chapter operates from Santa Barbara and serves candidates in North America, South America, and Canada. Globally, the Court operates across multiple countries and cities, with only a small number of people worldwide holding the Master Sommelier Diploma.
The Court of Master Sommeliers Americas also holds a federally registered trademark on the title “Master Sommelier” in the United States. It has used that trademark to prevent other organizations or individuals from using the designation. In 2021, it sued a candidate whose diploma had been suspended after the 2018 cheating scandal for continuing to use the “MS” post-nominal on social media. The case was dismissed on procedural grounds and was not refiled.
Courses and Certification Levels
The Court of Master Sommeliers does not operate as a traditional school. It does not maintain a campus or a full instructional program in the way many wine schools do. Instead, it conducts courses and exams in hotels, conference rooms, and rented venues.
Its certification path includes four levels.
Level 1: Introductory Sommelier
The Introductory Sommelier level is a two-day course ending in a written exam. The material is considered accessible compared with later levels, though candidates still need broad familiarity with wine regions, grape varieties, service, and basic theory.
The Court does not consistently publish pass rates for this level.
Level 2: Certified Sommelier
The Certified Sommelier exam includes three components: written theory, blind tasting, and practical service. This is the first level where candidates are meaningfully tested on restaurant-service skill as well as wine knowledge.
The Americas chapter has reported an average pass rate of approximately 66 percent for this level. Many candidates stop here because Certified Sommelier is widely recognized enough for many restaurant and hospitality roles.
Level 3: Advanced Sommelier
The Advanced Sommelier level uses the same three-part structure: theory, tasting, and service. The exam is significantly more difficult, and the Court recommends that candidates wait one to two years after passing Certified before attempting it.
The average pass rate is often cited around 25 percent, making this a major filter before the Master Sommelier Diploma.
Level 4: Master Sommelier Diploma
The Master Sommelier Diploma is the exam that made the Court famous. It includes a one-hour verbal theory exam, a practical service exam evaluated in a restaurant-service scenario, and a blind tasting exam requiring candidates to identify six wines.
The theory component alone has a very low pass rate, often cited around 10 percent. Participation at this level is by invitation, and candidates may spend years preparing.
The direct exam fees to reach Master level can appear relatively limited when viewed narrowly, but the real cost is much higher. Once study wine, travel, lodging, retakes, lost work time, and years of preparation are included, industry estimates commonly place the true cost well above $20,000.
Accreditation, Membership, and Credential Claims
After the scandals, the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas began describing itself as an organizational member of the Institute for Credentialing Excellence, commonly known as ICE.
That language requires careful reading.
ICE is a private nonprofit organization that serves the credentialing industry. It is not a federal agency, and membership in ICE is not the same thing as government recognition or independent accreditation. ICE’s credentialing arm, the National Commission for Certifying Agencies, does accredit some certification programs, but the Court of Master Sommeliers Americas does not claim that its sommelier credentials are NCCA-accredited.
That distinction matters. Being an organizational member of ICE is not the same as being accredited by ICE or NCCA: the court is not accredited.
The Court has historically operated with limited external oversight. Exam scores are delivered verbally. Detailed grading criteria are not publicly released. Appeals processes have been criticized as opaque. ICE membership, by itself, does not resolve those concerns.
The Case for the Court
The strongest argument for pursuing Court certification is straightforward: the Master Sommelier Diploma remains the most recognized restaurant-service wine credential in the United States: the List of Master Sommeliers in America.
The exam is genuinely difficult. The service component is more central than it is in many academic wine programs. The tasting standard is demanding. The network of candidates, Advanced Sommeliers, and Master Sommeliers can have real professional value for people working in restaurants, hotels, private clubs, wine sales, and hospitality education.
The Court has also taken steps toward reform since 2020. Those steps have included replacing its board, hiring executive leadership, revising ethics policies, and holding listening sessions with members and candidates.
For candidates whose careers are specifically tied to restaurant wine service, the Court still occupies a distinct place in the market.
The Case Against the Court
The case against the Court is harder to dismiss than it once was.
The exam process remains unusually opaque for a credential with such high professional stakes. Candidates receive limited visibility into grading. Appeals have historically been difficult. The organization does not offer the same kind of public academic framework, course transparency, or credential accreditation that students may expect from universities or more formal educational institutions.
The cost is also substantial. While the published exam fees tell part of the story, the real expense of the Court pathway includes travel, hotels, study groups, tasting practice, rare wines, retakes, time away from work, and years of unpaid preparation.
Most importantly, the institutional behavior exposed between 2018 and 2021 damaged trust. The cheating scandal, the sexual-misconduct allegations, the governance failures, and what critics viewed as an overly protective internal culture raised serious questions about accountability. A new board and revised policies may be necessary reforms, but they do not automatically erase the consequences of past failures.
Consider Your Options
The Court of Master Sommeliers is not the only credentialing path for wine professionals.
The Wine & Spirit Education Trust offers a more academic wine-education pathway, culminating in the Level 4 Diploma. It is widely recognized in both trade and consumer-facing wine education.
The Institute of Masters of Wine, which predates the Court and helped originate the 1969 Master Sommelier exam, offers one of the most demanding wine credentials in the world, with a stronger emphasis on written analysis, research, and global wine knowledge.
University-based programs now offer accredited study in viticulture, enology, hospitality, beverage management, and wine business. Those programs may be more appropriate for students seeking academic credit, career transition, or broader training in the beverage industry.
None of these alternatives carries exactly the same restaurant-service cachet as the Court of Master Sommeliers. But cachet is not the same as quality, transparency, or fit.
Candidates should choose the Court if they understand what it offers, what it costs, how it evaluates candidates, and what institutional history comes with the credential.
SOMM Verdict
The Court of Master Sommeliers remains one of the most important credentialing bodies in restaurant wine service. Its exams are rigorous, its highest title is still powerful, and its network can matter in the hospitality industry.
It is also an organization with a deeply damaged institutional record. The cheating scandal, sexual-misconduct revelations, governance failures, and ongoing transparency concerns should be part of any serious candidate’s decision.
For restaurant-service professionals, especially those pursuing fine-dining or hospitality leadership roles, the Court may still be worth considering. For students seeking academic wine study, transparent assessment, university recognition, or a broader wine-business education, other pathways may offer a better fit.