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Anthony Zhang 🍷

21 Oct, 14 tweets, 4 min read

Passing the Master Sommelier exam is hard.

Currently only 274 have passed and only 9 passed on their first try.

That makes it more exclusive than the:

NFL Hall of Fame
Nobel Prize
Wu-Tang Clan

What makes it one of the most difficult tests in the world?

Thread below
🍷🍷🍷

@CMS_americas

1/ The Court of Master Sommeliers (@CMS_americas) is the leading educational organization for wine.

It has four levels:

Introductory Sommelier
Certified Sommelier
Advanced Sommelier
Master Sommelier

@dustinwilsonms

2/ People who summited Everest: 5,294

Runners who broke 4:00 in the mile: 1,497

People who passed Master Sommelier exam: 274

(And Vinovest has 3 of them as advisors! @dustinwilsonms @janeymaxine @DJ_Gramenon)

3/ There are a lot of benefits of being a Master Sommelier.

Knowledge
Formal certification
Career development
Court of Master Sommelier membership
Free wine for life (just kidding)

I’d argue bragging rights, too.

4/ So, why are there so few Master Sommeliers?

Short answer: the test is freaking hard.

5/ Step 1: Pass the first three levels.

That’s no gimmie.

Fewer than 4,000 people have done it.

You also need 10 years of industry experience

And have someone invite or recommend you.

6/ The Master Sommelier test has three parts:

An oral exam
A blind taste test
A service exam

You must score 75% on all 3 parts.

Only 3-8% of people do.

7/ The oral test is the first.

Imagine two interviewers firing a million questions at you at once.

What’s the elevation of Dijon?
What Sangiovese clones can Italians plant?
How did phylloxera affect grafting?

8/ The blind taste test involves 6 wines.

You have to describe each of them perfectly.

That means knowing each wine’s:

Grape varietal (s)
Region
Sub-region
Year
Terroir

9/ The final portion involves serving technique.

In addition to perfecting your pour and knowing about the correct glassware to use, you are tested on much more than just wine.

Did you know that the exam also includes beer, liquor, cocktails, sake, and food pairings?

10/ I’d give you some actual question from the test,

But that information is confidential. 🤷‍♂️

11/ Becoming a Master Sommelier is a lifetime commitment.

Here are tips from certified Masters:

Study with others
Use the memory palace technique
Emphasize breadth over depth
Always take care of the table

@dustinwilsonms

12/ Want to gain a whole new level of appreciation for sommeliers?

I HIGHLY recommend watching the movie Somm this weekend (featuring @dustinwilsonms @WineauxDLynnP)

13/ Enjoyed this thread? Please give it a RT/follow! Every week I’ll be uncovering fascinating stories in the world of wine 🍷

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More from @anthony_j_zhang

Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

10 Oct

1/ It’s January 2010.

Aubert de Villaine is the famed proprietor of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

One day he receives an anonymous note threatening to destroy his priceless vines.

The ransom?

€1 million

2/ If you’re unfamiliar with Domaine de la Romanée-Conti.

Their wines are rare and fiercely sought-after.

Its wine retails for more than $20,000 per bottle, and prices quickly skyrocket on the secondary market. In Oct 2018 two bottles of the 1945 vintage sold for $558,000

3/ Aubert doesn’t think much about the ransom note. He thinks it’s a hoax or sick joke.

However...

The note included a detailed drawing of the DRC vineyard.

A drawing that could have only come from someone who knew it inside and out.

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Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

9 Oct

All right everybody, it’s wine trivia time!

Do you know what a Super Tuscan is? 🍇

2/ Have you ever said: “F this. I can do things better myself.”

That attitude got us Impressionist painters in the 19th century

And Tesla in the 21st century.

It’s also how we got one of the world’s most famous wine categories.

Buckle up for storytime.

3/ The scene is central Italy, 1971.

Like France, Italy has a classification system for wine quality.

Officials scrutinize the type of grape used, the exact growing process, & even how long the wine ages.

Anything not meeting their standards was considered low class wine.

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Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

4 Oct

1/ A bottle of 1787 Château Lafite Rothschild

Supposedly owned by Thomas Jefferson

Was at the heart of an international scandal.

Buckle up for part mystery, part wine history,

And one big juicy story.

👇 👇 👇

2/ Thomas Jefferson was America’s first famous wine buff.

He traveled to French wine regions and studied viticulture.

He even had 20,000 bottles of wine at the White House.

3/ In 1788, Jefferson ordered 125 bottles from France,

But they never arrived.

Fast forward to 1985, a mysterious bottle marked “Th. J.” appears at a Christie’s auction...

The winning bid?

$156,000, the highest price ever at the time for a bottle of wine

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Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

1 Oct

@KingJames

LeBron @KingJames is playing his 10th #NBAFinals

Regardless of outcome, he has cemented his legacy as one of the greatest athletes of his generation.

But there is another legacy that many aren't aware of: bringing fine wine into the mainstream.

Thread time 🍷🍷🍷

1/ It may seem contrarian for a superstar NBA athlete to be obsessed with drinking wine.

It feels counterintuitive to performance.

However, his stats, like wine, have only improved with age.

2/ LeBron didn’t even start drinking wine until he was 30.

Now he drinks wine pretty much every day.

(I think this is LeBron’s equivalent of Michael’s Secret Stuff)

Read 8 tweets

Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

27 Sep

Can anybody guess the price of the most expensive American wine ever sold?

Story below 🍷

1/ Answer: $500,000 for a bottle of Screaming Eagle 🦅

Made by a female winemaker (extremely rare in this industry).

The story of how this wine went from $100 a bottle to $500,000 is incredible.

2/ Our story starts with Jean Phillips.

She leaves behind a successful career in real estate in 1986

And buys 57 acres of land in Oakville, Napa Valley

It had a vineyard, but it was a mess.

She names it Screaming Eagle.

Read 12 tweets

Anthony Zhang 🍷

@anthony_j_zhang

9 Sep

Everyone dreams of having Warren Buffett’s portfolio, but few do.

Why?

Patience.

Here’s what Buffett’s patience can teach us about investing
👇 👇 👇

1/ This is young Warren Buffett.

When he was 11, he bought three shares of Cities Service Preferred.

The stock fluctuated, and he eventually sold them for $5.

If he had waited a little while longer, he would have earned $500.

2/ So, what did young Buffett learn? Investing is unpredictable.

As Ralph Wanger put it, investing is like walking a dog. You don’t know when the dog will sniff a tree or chase a squirrel.

Predicting those sudden movements is futile.

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