Women beat men at World’s Best Sommelier Contest: ALMOST (Link)

Staff writer Michael Perlis sent me this link.  Thinking what?  I don’t know.  That I should take more classes? That I should take more classes for actual credit?  That women can rule?

I have met more than my share of women in the wine world.  We run in packs but we’re not wolves.  Out to prove the old adage equal pay for equal work and no one is holding our wine glass back.

But, in reading this article, the one part I did find strange is that the 4 top women (out of the 12 that had made it to this level so far, it has since been won by Gerard Bassett of the UK) had to take one test in a language that they didn’t know.

Is this an act of reincarnation?  That our top sommeliers of the world had to have lived a past life as a Greek or Spaniard (or whatever!) and subconsciously withdrew the language for the test?  Coincidentally affording them the additional wine knowledge needed to pass such a rigorous exam?  How is that even possible?

Was this part of the test in conjunction with a blind tasting?  Were they drinking blind and marking their test blindfolded?  If so, how is it they they scored so “high”ly?

And, finally at last, why?  What in the heck was this about?  The serious side of me, of which there is very little, thinks that common root words look similiar in other languages.  It would be easy to figure out most romance languages if you knew one.  (Think Italians understanding Spanish.)  And that a sommelier must be able to read a wine label from a different country.

But, why the test was given in another language?  It’s still all Greek to me.