How Competitions Have Reshaped the Sommelier Profession.
Before becoming a star of the wine world, the sommelier was long a cellar man. In the mid-twentieth century, the profession even came close to disappearing. From the founding of a trade union in 1907 to the first national contest in 1961 and the first world title in 1969, this is a look back at a history that the Lisbon final, on Friday 16 October 2026, is about to extend.
De l’homme de cave de 1813 à la finale de Lisbonne, l’histoire d’une profession qui a bien failli disparaître
Before phylloxera: a cellar man
The word comes from sommier, the pack animal, and first referred to the person in charge of the baggage. An ordinance of Philip V in 1318 officially recognised the title: sommeliers were then officers of royal and princely households, and wine service followed a highly codified ritual, partly out of fear of poison.
In the nineteenth century, with the rise of restaurants after the Revolution, the sommelier became a cellar man. In 1813, André Jullien, a wine merchant, published a Manuel du sommelier in Paris, sometimes presented as the first book devoted to the trade: it deals with storage, topping up casks and bottling. In short, the sommelier is essentially a caviste, a keeper of the cellar and its wines. In 1836, Mardelin’s Nouveau manuel du sommelier followed the same logic, with more precise vocabulary and a better knowledge of the wine regions. Wine often arrived in barrel, and had to be looked after, racked, bottled and protected from spoilage. People learned on the job.
Phylloxera: the age of fraud
Phylloxera appeared in France in 1865 and destroyed a large part of the vineyard, causing a shortage of grapes. To cope, some merchants made “sophisticated wines” from raisins, sugar or beetroot. Others brought in grapes from elsewhere by rail, and used cheap, high-strength wines, notably from Algeria, to blend with mediocre ones. Nothing guaranteed any longer that a wine sold under a prestigious name really came from there. ([our dossier on the origin of the AOCs](LINK TO ADD))
Fraud and unsold stocks triggered genuine uprisings, such as the one in the Languedoc in 1907, and forced lawmakers to act: the law of 29 June 1907 against the watering down of wine and the abuse of sugaring, then the law of 1919 on appellations of origin, and finally the AOCs in 1935. In this world of suspicion, the sommelier had to deal with the situation: he needed to know what he was buying, what he was tasting and what he was serving.
1907: a first union to win recognition for the profession
On 22 October 1907, Émile Carme, a head sommelier, founded the Union des Sommeliers de Paris. It was first a mutual-aid society, open to sommeliers and wine merchants in the Paris region, offering them social protection. But it also had an ambition: to make the sommelier a profession whose mission is to promote wine service. A first banquet took place in 1910 to fund its relief and pension fund. In 1922, a chief inspector called for special courses and a graduation diploma. In 1923, the Union published the first issue of its monthly, Sommelier. The 1920s and 1930s were also when advising the customer began to count in the sommelier’s work.
1930–1960: the profession on the brink of extinction
The crisis of the 1930s pushed restaurants to cut costs. Maîtres d’hôtel and waiters gradually took over the sommelier’s tasks. According to estimates cited by the Musée des boissons, there were about 900 sommeliers in Paris and around a hundred in the provinces in the early 1930s, against some fifty in the 1960s. By the end of that decade, the profession was close to vanishing. In 1959, the Union, down to about sixty members, considered merging into the Mutualité hôtelière. The merger failed, but the Union lost its journal and its savings.
From cellar to dining room: a profession that splits in two
For a long time, the sommelier was a cellar man, even in a restaurant: in 1812, the dictionary defined him as the person in charge of the cellar and wines in a restaurant. Two functions coexisted. The cellar sommelier received the wine, looked after it and bottled it. The floor sommelier (sommelier de salle), who advises the customer at the table, was far rarer. Advising the customer only became important in the 1920s and 1930s. As long as wine arrived in cask and restaurateurs bought from merchants, most of the work was done in the cellar.
What changed the balance was estate bottling. The symbol is well known: Mouton-Rothschild was only bottled at the château from 1924, whereas the Chartrons merchants had been shipping far more under its name than the estate could have produced. As wine arrived in bottle, with its origin printed on the label, cellar tasks diminished. What counted more and more was knowing the wine and being able to tell its story at the table. The AOCs, created in 1935, gave the sommelier a language: that of the appellations, which it fell to him to know and explain.
The shift was slow: in the early 1970s, some sommeliers were still receiving wine in cask and bottling it themselves. But the 1962 Code du Sommelier already recognised the separation between the cellar sommelier (sommelier-caviste) and the floor sommelier. This is how the sommelier gradually became a player in the dining room, a connoisseur of wine and spokesperson for its appellations. The gradual disappearance of cellar work probably explains in part why the profession nearly died out, and why it had to reinvent itself.
1961–1969: the rebound
Then everything came together.
- 1961: two journalists, Henri Clos-Jouve and Odette Kahn, created the Meilleur Sommelier de France contest with the support of the Comité national des vins de France. For the first time, the profession had a competition of its own.
- 1962: the Code du Sommelier was published. It marks the separation between the cellar sommelier, who works in the cellar, and the floor sommelier, who advises the customer at the table. That same year, Louis Lebail, head sommelier at the Plaza, challenged the attachment to the Mutualité hôtelière.
- 1969: Parisian sommeliers left the Mutualité hôtelière and founded the Association des Sommeliers de Paris. On 3 and 4 June, in Reims, the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) was born. The same year, in Brussels, the first Best Sommelier of the World contest was won by the Frenchman Armand Melkonian.
1970–2000: the profession takes shape
In the following decades, the trade equipped itself as a true profession. The Union de la Sommellerie Française brought regional associations together and launched the journal Bacchus International in 1973. The Ruinart trophy for young sommeliers was created in 1979, and the European contest in 1988. On the training side, a sommelier CAP was created in 1980, replaced in 1985 by a complementary mention, before the professional certificate (brevet professionnel) introduced by decree on 3 August 1995. The title of master sommelier appeared in 1989.
Meanwhile, the world contest went on. Seventeen sommeliers won the title between 1969 and 2023: six French, three Italians, two Swedes, two Germans, one Japanese, one Briton, one Latvian and, since 2013, one Swiss, Paolo Basso.
Today: a profession that opens up
The profession has broadened. The sommelier has become an adviser, author, media personality and entrepreneur. Wine by the glass has become widespread, natural wines have gained ground, and non-alcoholic drinks have found their place at the table. The contest follows this movement. In Antwerp in 2019, semi-finalists had to match wines with stones representing their soil of origin, and the final included serving a draught beer. In Paris in 2023, they had to identify the origin of the oak used for the same Bordeaux, blind-taste a non-alcoholic drink and suggest vegan pairings, in a language that was not their own.
Lisbon, which already hosted the 1978 edition, is welcoming the 18th edition this year. From 11 to 17 October, 66 candidates, including Switzerland’s Mikaël Grou, will sit tests in theory, blind tasting, pairing and service. The final takes place on Friday 16 October at the Coliseu dos Recreios, with the results announced at the end of the competition.
Why this contest matters
The profession’s revival cannot be credited to a single event. Associations, training and the evolution of restaurants weighed just as much. But the chronology speaks for itself: within a few years, between 1961 and 1969, the profession gained a national contest, a code, a Parisian association and an international organisation, just when it risked disappearing. The contest gave the floor sommelier a stage, role models and a way to measure himself.
It still matters today for a simple reason: every three or four years, it puts the sommelier’s profession in full light. In a few days of tests, it shows what a sommelier must be able to do in 2026: taste blind, master theory, suggest a pairing, serve with precision, speak to guests in another language. For professionals, it is also a chance to discover what is new and to gauge how the profession is evolving, from non-alcoholic wines to new ways of advising guests.
What those who live it say
In June, for International Sommelier Day, we asked eleven professionals about the future of the profession (la série « Où va la sommellerie ? »). Their answers extend the history we have just traced.
A more versatile sommelier. David Biraud, who has seen the profession transform over three decades, sums up the change: “Today’s sommelier is a full player in the dining room,” and “versatility is no longer an option.” He describes the time when each brigade had its own territory, the dining room on one side and the sommelier on the other: “That time is over.” (read the interview)
A more complete profession. Philippe Faure-Brac, crowned best sommelier in the world in 1992, looks even further ahead: “Tomorrow’s sommelier will have to be more complete than ever. He will also have to be a manager, a teacher, a storyteller and an expert in drinks in the broad sense.” (read the interview)
A more open profession. Bastien Debono remembers: “When I started in 2013, being a sommelier outside the starred circuit was almost frowned upon.” He notes that the profession has since opened up and diversified, reaching bistros, wine bars and independent hotels. (read the interview)
A profession of listening. Pascaline Lepeltier, head sommelier in New York and France’s candidate in Lisbon, says that “the sommelier’s job today is truly a job of listening to the customer.” On contests themselves, she argues that one should be judged “in training as in competitions […] not on the ability to recite appellations by heart.” (read the interview)
From the cellar man of 1813 to today's adviser, manager and storyteller, the distance is great. It is this journey that the contest lets us see, every three or four years, on a stage. This year, in Lisbon, it is being played out once more.
Sources: Association des Sommeliers de Paris Île-de-France (“Les origines de l’association”); Musée des boissons (“Le métier de sommelier”); Vila Viniteca (“Petite histoire de la sommellerie et évolution de la vente du vin au restaurant”); ASI (“About ASI” page, programme and list of candidates for the 2026 contest); ASI Magazine (tribute to Armand Melkonian); ASNCAP (Armand Melkonian); World of Fine Wine (2023 contest); Wikipedia (list of winners); ASI (2019 contest); The Road to Lisbon (wine.co.za); interviews from the series “Où va la sommellerie ?”, Le Journal du Sommelier, June 2026; interview with historian Olivier Jacquet and FranceArchives (Le Journal du Sommelier’s dossier on the origin of the AOCs). Facts reworded by the author.