Sommelier CV Examples & Writing Guide

This sample is a working floor sommelier who also runs the cellar and buys part of the list. The restaurants are invented. Notice that the list size, the cellar value and the wine revenue are all in the first four lines.

A sommelier is both a salesperson and a stock manager. The person hiring you is checking whether you can do both, and whether you fit the restaurant.

• The list you have run. Number of bins, cellar bottle count and value, the regions it leans on, and whether you bought any of it. A 600-bin cellar list and a 40-wine bistro list are different jobs.
• Money you brought in. Wine revenue per cover, attachment rate, by-the-glass sales, private event spend. Sommelier work is measurable and most CVs leave the numbers off.
• Stock discipline. Pour cost against target, variance, dead stock, open-bottle waste. This is the difference between a wine enthusiast and someone who can be trusted with a cellar worth nearly half a million pounds.
• Qualification level and where you are going. Introductory, Certified, Advanced, or WSET Level 2 to 4. Say the body and the year, and whether you are sitting the next level.

“Two numbers matter to me: wine spend per cover and pour cost. Everything else is taste, and taste I can assess in a tasting. If a CV shows someone grew wine per cover from twenty-one to twenty-six pounds and kept pour cost under target, that person is going to make the restaurant money.”

Three or four lines: list size, cellar, revenue and your qualification. Adapt whichever is closest to your restaurant.

The duties are widely understood, so a plain list of them adds nothing. Attach the size, the money and the change.

Split the commercial skills from the tasting and service skills, because the beverage director cares about both but reads for the commercial ones first.

• Commercial: list design and pricing, margin, GP and pour cost management, stocktakes and variance, dead stock and repricing, buying and allocations, budget forecasting for events.
• Floor: reading a table quickly, upselling without pressure, pairing across a set menu, decanting, Coravin and preservation, glassware and temperature service, handling a corked or faulty bottle.
• Tasting: deductive tasting method, blind tasting, regional and vintage knowledge in the areas your list covers, spirits and sake if the programme includes them.
• Team: staff training and blind tasting sessions, written crib sheets for list changes, working with the chef on menu changes, coaching new waiters on the two-minute wine conversation.
• Systems and compliance: stock management software, EPOS reporting, deliveries and bin management, personal licence or Challenge 25 training, food hygiene certificate.
• Extras that get read: a second language, event hosting, media or writing experience, and any producer visits or harvest work you have done.

"Sommelier" is not a protected title in the UK, so qualifications are how employers calibrate you. Name the awarding body and the year, always.

• Court of Master Sommeliers: Introductory Sommelier Certificate, Certified Sommelier, Advanced Sommelier, then Master Sommelier. Certified is the practical benchmark for a floor sommelier job in most cities.
• WSET: Level 1 through the Level 4 Diploma. WSET is London-based and internationally recognised, and Level 3 is a common companion to a Court qualification. The Level 4 Diploma is a serious multi-year commitment.
• Master of Wine: the Institute of Masters of Wine runs the MW, a very senior qualification usually started after the WSET Diploma. Common among buyers, educators and wine directors.
• Licensing. A sommelier needs no licence to serve, but many head sommeliers and wine directors hold a personal licence (APLH), which lets them authorise alcohol sales. Otherwise list current Challenge 25 training.
• Level 2 Food Hygiene, which most restaurants expect of all front-of-house staff.
• If you are studying for the next level, write it plainly: "Advanced Sommelier candidate, exam booked for 2027". That is credible and useful; claiming the level is not.

Most sommeliers come off the floor of the same restaurant or from a wine merchant. The CV needs to prove you can sell wine and count it, not just talk about it.

1. 1Take the Introductory exam or WSET Level 2 before you apply. It is the cheapest credibility available and it filters out most casual applicants.
2. 2Quantify your wine selling as a waiter: personal wine sales per shift, attachment rate, bottles sold on a busy night. Managers can pull these numbers, so ask for them.
3. 3Volunteer for the unglamorous half: deliveries, bin counts, stocktakes, the by-the-glass rotation. Then write it on the CV, because that is the part employers worry about.
4. 4Lead a staff tasting or write the crib sheet for a list change and put it on the page. It shows you can teach, which is half of a sommelier's job.
5. 5Go to supplier and trade tastings and note how many you attend a year. Building supplier relationships early is real experience.
6. 6Apply to restaurants one step below your dream restaurant. Wine programmes promote from within, and a commis sommelier post in a serious cellar beats a sommelier title in a restaurant with 40 wines.

One page for a floor sommelier, two for a wine director with multiple venues. This is a small industry and your CV is often read by someone who knows your last restaurant.

• Describe each restaurant in brackets: seat count, style, list size. Those three facts place you instantly for anyone in the business.
• Put qualifications in their own section with the body and year, and repeat your highest one in the contact line.
• Mirror the advert's title: sommelier, head sommelier, assistant or commis sommelier, wine director, beverage director.
• No photo and no date of birth: that is standard on a UK CV. Single column, plain headings, PDF.
• Add a short line about the regions you know best and any harvest or producer visits. In this trade that is credibility, not decoration.