Sommeliers drink while still getting paid for it, how cool!

Who knew wine tasting could be a fun activity, interesting at that?

I found a new hobby, dear readers. I am very excited as I am on the road to becoming a sommelier.

At least I believe I am. However, there is no room for judgment here.

According to Wesley’s wine tips, sommeliers, or wine stewards, are people who trained specially for this job.

They nowadays work in restaurants and are specialised in all aspects of wine service, from which glass to pick for the particular kind of wine to the food pairings.

I recently attended a French wine-tasting event, and I was so intrigued to see that there is quite a huge wine community in Kenya.

Talk of importers and sommeliers.

There were, of course, some influencers, wine shop owners, club owners and even superstore owners.

Some 26 French producers and merchants were brought into the country to connect with wine enthusiasts, if I may call them that, for possible business ventures.

I had always imagined people who enjoy drinking getting paid for it.

While I was reading a book some time back, I surprisingly learnt that despite the negative talk around alcohol consumption, there are people who drink wine as a professional job.

All they have to do is understand wines from around the world, study wine regions and flavour profiles, recommend wine pairings to customers and sell bottles of wine.

Part of their job is to also design wine lists for menus, manage inventory and even learn a customer's preferences for better recommendations.

Yeah, they get money for this kind of job.

The average salary of sommeliers is Sh6.5 million a year.

But I share the thoughts of many around me when I ask, is it that easy?

Do they get drunk? Do they turn into alcoholics and get addicted?

How much wine do sommeliers drink? Do they memorise all the wine styles?

According to an online author, apparently, on average, sommeliers drink 40 bottles of wine per day.

“It doesn’t mean they finish all the forty bottles. They simply have to 'have a taste' of the wine before serving it to a customer,” the article reads.

But even if they don’t drink a whole bottle or a half glass, that much alcohol is said to be dangerous, so the sommeliers spit the wine. They have to do it.

“The mouth senses are all there, so they take the wine into their mouth, rinse and spit it out,” the author said.

“Having that much wine at once can harm the feelings of sweetness, sourness and spiciness in the mouth, so they cannot do their job correctly.”

I am happy to learn that there is a lively culture of wine tasting in Kenya.

I was equally happy to learn that there are wine families in Kenya and some are even in their fourth and fifth generations.

I do not encourage the consumption of alcohol in any way.

You are, however, free to do whatever you want with this information.

While I think this culture remains in practice while on the low, I am tempted to conclude this is so because of the high class that comes with it.

However, I believe this practice can still be done by anyone regardless of class.

I am really considering taking up this new hobby-cum-side job and enrolling for those classes.

Or maybe it will be a full-time job, who knows?

I don’t know about you, my dear reader, but sitting in rows while practising how to swirl and detect the notes of citrus, floral undertones, dried oak wood and perhaps dried fruits looks fun and enticing.