As of 2015, Russia has become one of the few countries in the world to have the profession of sommelier recognised by the government. Sommeliers now have a professional standard to adhere to, that covers both sommeliers and retail segment workers, and which explains what it means to be a sommelier in Russia.
The advantages seem obvious: more recognition for the profession. Becoming a sommelier is now officially a profession that can be taught and learned. So why hasn’t the move made Russian sommeliers and wine professionals bounce with happiness?
Major reforms
Russian president Vladimir Putin, is formally heading the largest and quietest education reform in recent years, with hundreds of professionals from doctors to physicists and now sommeliers pushed to prove the validity of their diplomas – many of which are already valid and officially recognised.
The move towards new legislation started in 2013, when the Russian president tasked the government with developing and implementing a system of professional standards. Initially aimed at government organisations, the system later incorporated private businesses as well. The target number of standards to approve by 2015 was set to 800 and the new body to oversee the qualifications – the National Council for Professional Qualifications – was established in April 2014.
Some observers believe the desire to impose a new system of standards was because of a gap between the professional education given by universities and the demands of employers. Another reason was that Russia had joined the World Trade Organisation in 2012; membership demands that the professional standards and qualifications of each country must be clear to other members.
To meet the new qualification standards, everyone who needs or wants official recognition of their profession on their labour record, now has to pass the assessment set by specially created commissions, which consist of experts from the corresponding industries. The Deputy Minister of Labour, Lyubov Eltsova, responded to Meininger’s request for information by writing that there will be a fee for the examination, either paid privately by the candidate, or by their employer, depending on the situation. By the end of 2017, some 70,000 employees across a range of industries will have been assessed, including from government-funded businesses. The fees generated by testing could be substantial.
The experts
The sommelier assessments will be conducted by Centres for Qualifications Assessment (CQA), the quasi-government structures which, in turn, are expected to consist of experts considered capable of judging a specific professional standard. So far the selection of those experts is a procedure managed by people appointed from the relevant industry. For sommeliers, restaurant chefs and bar employees this relevant organisation is the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers, founded and managed by Igor Bukharov. Bukharov is no newcomer to the Russian hospitality market. After the crash of the Soviet Union, he became the leader of the first generation of Russian restaurateurs, with his Nostalgie restaurant and wine school in the center of Moscow. Not only that, but Bukharov and his Federation were instrumental in making the government approval of the sommelier standard happen.
The idea of bringing in people from the industry to judge other people from the industry is, in itself, not a suspect idea. However, making the new quasi-government structure work in a fair way could be tricky; while researching this article, I asked Bukharov on Facebook how I could become an assessor. I called the contact he gave me, who explained the procedure and the cost. First, there is as yet no step-by-step procedure, although I was told they definitely want industry professionals. More significantly, the accreditation process is costly. To become an assessor will cost 18,000RUR ($282.00), which in the current economy is too high a price for almost everyone except a wine corporation to pay. Further, there was no open tender process to attract potential experts from the industry for the task. Instead, Bukharov approached Simple, along with the president of the Russian Sommelier Association (RAS), a member of the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI).
Simple is one of Russia’s biggest and best-known wine distributors. Founded in 1994, it distributes wine across Russia, to both the on- and off-trade. Widely respected, Simple carries a wide range of both prestige and everyday wines from around the world – including the Le Grand Noir brand created by Meininger’s editorial consultant Robert Joseph.
There is a close relationship between Simple and the Russian Sommelier Association. The trade company has been the official RAS partner for many years now, while Simple’s co-founder and vice-president Anatoly Korneyev is also the executive director of the RAS.
Certify the certified ones
As the educational reform goes on, Bukharov and his organisation will clearly be a bridge between business and government, and his role in the future of chefs and sommeliers could be significant, especially if the sommeliers are obliged to gain certification to confirm their official job position. Speaking at a press conference, Bukharov noted that he didn’t want government interference in the industry.
On the other hand, he said that he saw the advantages of the government initiatives for sommeliers including a “better salary” and “cleaning the market” of “self-proclaimed sommeliers”. He wouldn’t be drawn on the specifics of how sommeliers are to be assessed by the government commissions.
What is clear is that the Russian government is changing the specialist certification procedures for great many professions in a shockingly short time; the first sommelier assessment commissions were supposed to begin working on 1 July 2016. However, they still hadn’t begun by the end of July 2016, with no news as to when they will begin. While Deputy Labour Minister Eltsova made it clear that the qualification assessment would be voluntary for private citizens, some voices are calling to impose mandatory assessments for sommeliers with the loudest voice coming from the RAS president Sidorov, who is also vice president of the Federation of Restaurateurs and Hoteliers – the organisation founded by Bukharov.
Cleaning the market of “self-proclaimed sommeliers” is a focus for Bukharov: “Imagine you’re a sommelier and you see another person who calls himself a sommelier. And you know he’s not. Isn’t it insulting? It is!” When asked why it was necessary to add another layer of government regulation to the work of independent professionals, the RAS president Sidorov replied it was a decree by Mr. Putin targeted at many professions, not only sommeliers. “When you visit a doctor, he asks you to pay for a visit and you don’t even know his qualifications level. The same goes for sommeliers.”
Sidorov and Bukharov are right about one thing: the sommelier title is used all too often as a descriptor for any person who deals with wine. But will government regulations help fix this? And, if so, why isn’t the profession widely regulated elsewhere?
Take Sweden. “In Sweden it’s easy. Anyone can call themselves a sommelier, but if you have a certificate you’re likely to add that to your title. And now we actually have education sponsored by the government to trigger young people to get the sommelier certificate as long as they will work in a restaurant,” says Andreas Larsson, one of the world’s most prominent sommeliers. Larsson says that in Sweden anyone can call themselves a sommelier if they want – it’s ultimately the market which will decide whether someone can get work or not. The Swedish’s government’s role isn’t to insist on a specific vocational path, but to help fund the associated education.
Italy’s major sommelier association is Associazione Italiana Sommelier (AIS). “You can work as sommelier even if you don’t have a sommelier diploma,” said the winner of the 2015 AIS sommelier competition, Andrea Galanti. “If you have the passion and know about wine, no one will stop you.”
Vladimir Basov, one of the most experienced sommeliers in Russia, noted in a conversation that sommeliers, along with chefs and bar workers, are judged elsewhere on the strength of their teachers, not their diplomas. “I know many European sommeliers — both with and without diplomas — and they all had teachers. We don’t use this practice at all.”
Potential blowback
The proposed profession control methods are most likely to affect young and inexperienced sommeliers, or lovers of wine seeking to have an official sommelier status. “These measures might lead people to believe that in order to be a ‘proper’ sommelier they have to throw away money on an expensive education course held in a specific ‘certified’ wine school, and then pass the additional government assessment to prove that one learned well,” suggests sommelier Dmitry Bazashvili, from restaurant Aragvi.
Russian sommeliers already play a diminished role in the restaurant business, because it’s dominated by contractual obligations with wine distributors and commercial wine lists. Sommeliers need help, not an additional level of control. Further, putting certification in the hands of an entity that is dominated by just one distributor suggests possible conflicts of interest. Besides, there are many wine players, specialists and sommeliers, who would be happy to collaborate with the government – if there was an invitation to do so.
Voices from the wine trade call for fair competition, if only there was someone to listen to them. “It’s vitally important when forming such an [assessment] system to make it independent and transparent, to avoid the situation when it becomes an instrument of unfair market competition between the trade,” says Vladislav Volkov, the CEO of wine distributor Vinoterra. Alexander Shumilov the vice-president of a wine importing company Eurowine, agrees. “For sure, the assessment commissions should consist of restaurateurs, experienced sommeliers, journalists and winemakers, to reduce the possibilities of influencing the decisions. It also should incorporate a principle of rotation of its members.”
There may be a means to stop a single company gaining control of the process. “If preferences to specific companies are [given], a lot will depend on the position of Federal Anti-monopoly Service (FAS),” says the CEO of wine distributor Fort, Mikhail Bodukhin.
There are other opinions too. “I don’t think someone has plans to influence sommeliers, but the mere availability of this option itself could be tempting,” says Anton Panasenko, one of Russia’s old-timers.
Is Russia best served by having sommeliers regulated and assessed by the government-related structures at all, especially when the potential conflicts of interests exist? The European experience suggests it’s not necessary, although some countries are introducing new government-controlled assessments like brevets professionnels in France.
Meanwhile, the Russian Sommelier Association is actively expanding to major Russian cities, cloning itself via local associations like Moscow Sommelier Association and the new St. Petersburg Sommelier Association, with plans to open more in the major cities.
The first sommelier assessment is yet to happen.
