A couple of decades ago, sommelier was a pretty obscure word in the American lexicon. In French it means wine steward or butler, and for me — rather unfairly — it long conjured up the image of buttoned-up maîtie d’-type characters with polished silver tastevins swaying from their necks and wine-tinged teeth uttering snobbish facts about the best vintages of Richebourg.

The premiere of the first “SOMM” movie in 2012 changed all that. It helped break down the stereotypes and open up an interest in wine for a lot of people. Every restaurant seems to have its own wine program now. Educational opportunities are exploding and the pretension is dissipating with them. 

I’ve noticed that as this particular job, of sommelier, is the only public window into wine, it’s boxed people’s perceptions around what is actually a vast global industry. Suddenly, the word was applied to the stressed out nerds of the restaurant world, like in the movie, and is now shorthand for everyone who worked in the wine trade.

Today’s sommelier is a person with knowledge of beverages, especially wine, and food pairings who works in a restaurant and serves guests tableside. It can also be the person who sources wines, writes a wine list, and trains other staff members, a description that also applies to a beverage or wine director, who may not work on the floor.

Where does that leave the rest of us who work in wine but don’t fit that narrow definition? It depends, as everyone is grouped under the heading wine professional. Only a few positions actually interface with consumers the way a sommelier does — chiefly, retail sales, cellar consultants, teachers, and those pouring at cellardoor. Most of the rest are B2B, limiting the average person’s exposure to the industry and the people in it.  

Whenever I tell people I work in wine, the first question they ask is whether I am a sommelier. When I’m wearing my wine sales hat as a retail employee, I do call on both the same knowledge base and skill set of guiding people into wines that fit their tastes and budget. 

The major difference is two-fold: One, I’m lucky enough to avoid the steps of service; two, instead of juggling multiple tables with limited attention given to each, I have the luxury of spending all of my energy on a single interaction, without a time limit. While I’m not a sommelier, it is not offensive to be called one — just not exactly accurate.

It seems as our perception of what makes a sommelier has evolved, so has the world of wine. Once pretentious and exclusive, it’s now genuine and approachable. Maybe a sommelier isn’t just your wine server, but the catalyst for a zeitgeist.