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Wine tasting. Photograph Regis Duvignau/Reuters

Do you love wine, people, and the finer things in life? If so, the career of wine sommelier may just be right for you. A sommelier is a wine steward with expert knowledge about a variety of wines, the foods they pair best with, serving wine and providing expert advice to customers. When you dine in an elegant restaurant and you want to order a bottle of wine with your meal, you can ask the sommelier for their recommendation. Generally, working in a restaurant and attending wine tastings will get you started and though sommelier is a job title potentially anyone may claim, becoming a certified sommelier requires classes, loads of studying, tasting and an examination. Various sommelier schools, usually in the wine-producing countries, offer sommelier certification programs for wine-lovers. Most programs are also taught in English:

The Old World Wines: Career in Sommelier Consulting, Wine University in Drôme, France

The New World Wines: Career in Sommelier of the Argentinean wines, Argentine College of Food and Drink in Buenos Aires, Argentina

After completing a sommelier program you can work as an expert wine consultant in restaurants, hotels, resorts and casinos. You can manage sales programs for import/export agencies, you can  instruct courses in wine/beverage education, host wine tours abroad or develop wine training programs for restaurant and hotel staff.

However, if your dream is to own a vineyard and pursue wine production, we would suggest that you undertake this distance education course in  Wine Technology and Viticulture Graduate, where you will learn about winegrowing and financial management for agribusiness. It’s awarded by The University of Melbourne, Australia.

The only requirement for starting this career is that you must be 19 years of age or older! Sorry!

Tags: Course of the Week, sommelier, The University of Melbourne, wine consultant