As Sommelier, we are a living book

5 days ago

4 min read

Ten Years to the Master Sommelier Diploma

Ten years ago, when I first stepped into the world of wine, I would never have expected to reach the Master Sommelier Diploma.

This was not even a reachable dream back then. I considered every Master I met a kind of superhuman.

Indeed, I first heard about it in London, watching my head sommelier at the time train for his Certified level. Listening to him, I was amazed by what he knew. It commanded respect, and it taught me humility before I'd even started.

A colleague on that same team, who soon became a friend, pushed me to begin the path myself. At first it wasn't even my own choice. Then I enjoyed it so much I couldn't stop. Along the way, I met extraordinary people, and learned something from every one of them.

By 2018, I'd passed both the Introductory and Certified levels. Advanced came in 2020.

Then came Covid, and our whole industry was forced into a long break. I thought it was all over for me. But on a Monday morning, I received an invitation to sit the exam, and I was back on track.

Eight months later, the night before my first attempt, I remember sitting on my bed in Canary Wharf, London, filled with a level of emotion I hadn't expected.

At that precise moment, I understood that the journey had stopped being just about learning facts from the wine world. It had become a personal challenge.

I was pleased to pass my practical on the first attempt. But I also understood the amount of work I still needed to put in for the tasting and the theory.

From there, I trained my mind the way an Olympic athlete trains for years for thirty seconds on a podium. No excuses. Every spare minute went to my flashcards. I had to adapt many aspects of my life to make room for what had become my dream.

I stopped counting the hours: studying, drawing maps, tasting blind or comparatively, breaking down every element in a glass, until I could perform at the level this exam demanded.

Going through it takes determination, dedication, frustration, relief, and self-trust, often all in the same week. Of course, there are many ups and downs. It can be tiring, emotional, and sometimes close to despair.

But I have never regretted a single second I spent improving my craft.

Then, in June 2025, I had the real pleasure of hearing directly from Ronan Sayburn MS that I had passed the MS examination. This was the most beautiful day of my life.

It took me weeks to realise what I had actually done.

Tony Lécuroux MS in Bordeaux — Tony Lécuroux MS

I now want to spend my time and energy mentoring the next generation of sommeliers, and sharing what I love about this world in a bottle. Every single one of them has a personal story: a region, a place, a geology, the millions of years it took to form the soil a vine grows in, and the person behind the bottle who made the decisions that got it into your glass.

My teacher told me this on the first day I walked into his classroom, in Tain-l'Hermitage: a sommelier can never take credit for what the winemaker has done, or for the craftsmanship it took the kitchen to build a dish.

What we do instead is link those stories together, pairing a guest with the right bottle, at the right time, for the experience they actually need. We are an open book.

That line has stayed with me for ten years. But I'd add to it now: we're not a book left silent on a shelf.

We're the living wine book, the one that speaks, that stands in the room, that gives every bottle a voice before it ever reaches the glass.

If you are early in your own path, whatever exam or region or grape is in front of you right now, it will ask more of you than you expect, more than once.

Stay anyway. Nobody remembers the years it took. They will remember what you gave them once you get there.

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