The other day I visited a website where the author described himself as a ‘Master of Wine Business’ – an expression that I had never encountered before. I have of course come across the title Master of Wine, and I must confess to personally knowing a fair few of them – all very knowledgeable members of the wine trade. Subsequently, I came across a BBC webpage written by a Master Sommelier, and it occurred to me that despite all these people no doubt being highly qualified, that by overusing the term ‘Master’ this only serves to undermine it’s true value. Indeed, Angela has a Masters degree in wine making from the University of Madrid, which she did as a follow on to her degree in Biology, and so by the same token, should she now refer to herself as a Master of Oenology?

Incidentally, in the same BBC article that I mentioned above the ‘Master Sommelier’ answers a few commonly asked questions about wine, one of which is quite simply “Why does wine get better with age?” He launches into a great technical explanation as to how the molecules reform and change, breaking down and going from very primary flavours to more complex flavours….. very impressive! If someone had asked me (Master of Nothing), I would have started my reply by simply saying that not all wines improve with age, and then explaining why!!

The other day I visited a website where the author described himself as a ‘Master of Wine Business’ – an expression that I had never encountered before. I have of course come across the title Master of Wine, and I must confess to personally knowing a fair few of them – all very knowledgeable members of the wine trade. Subsequently, I came across a BBC webpage written by a Master Sommelier, and it occurred to me that despite all these people no doubt being highly qualified, that by overusing the term ‘Master’ this only serves to undermine it’s true value. Indeed, Angela has a Masters degree in wine making from the University of Madrid, which she did as a follow on to her degree in Biology, and so by the same token, should she now refer to herself as a Master of Oenology?

Incidentally, in the same BBC article that I mentioned above the ‘Master Sommelier’ answers a few commonly asked questions about wine, one of which is quite simply “Why does wine get better with age?” He launches into a great technical explanation as to how the molecules reform and change, breaking down and going from very primary flavours to more complex flavours….. very impressive! If someone had asked me (Master of Nothing), I would have started my reply by simply saying that not all wines improve with age, and then explaining why!!