Las Vegas — SOMMELIER Darren Lutz could have moved anywhere in the world for his next job after Bastide temporarily closed its doors in January, but he headed for Las Vegas. Opportunities for sommeliers are everywhere in this neon-lighted, restaurant-rich corner of the Nevada desert.
But there's a catch, Lutz discovered, as have dozens of sommeliers before him. Vegas is a tough place to make a name for yourself. Sure, sommeliers make double the money they can elsewhere, but they may never be heard of again.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Tuesday September 12, 2006 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 26 words Type of Material: Correction
Sommelier: In a Sept. 6 Food section article on Las Vegas sommeliers, Stuart Roy was identified as a master sommelier. He has not achieved that certification.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday September 13, 2006 Home Edition Food Part F Page 3 Features Desk 0 inches; 24 words Type of Material: Correction
Sommelier: In a Sept. 6 article on Las Vegas sommeliers, Stuart Roy was identified as a master sommelier. He has not achieved that certification.
Why? Because as they strive to develop wine lists that measure up to the world-class food now being served in the city, sommeliers face serious obstacles unique to Vegas' wine culture. They are discovering that they must challenge the distribution system and an old-boy business culture even as the laws of Nevada add to the difficulty of doing their jobs.
Multi-million-dollar wine shipments being turned away at the door, rumors of reprisals against those who dare to go around a behemoth distributor, sommeliers denied access to the wines they want -- these are signs of the difficulties Las Vegas sommeliers face.
Lutz landed a job with Joel Robuchon at MGM Grand, one of the town's most exclusive dining rooms. He's thrilled with the Vegas wine community and has found serious tasting groups, study sessions with veteran sommeliers and the help he needs to make his next big step: passing the master sommelier exam.
"The master sommeliers in this community are mentoring the young soms," Lutz says. "They give back. They teach."
The sommelier community in Las Vegas is big and rich. The demand for wine pros soared as the city evolved into the world's most extraordinary culinary tourist attraction, with more than 30 restaurants boasting connections to celebrity chefs such as Daniel Boulud, Thomas Keller and Alain Ducasse opening in the last decade. A sommelier is the wine conscience of a serious restaurant. He or she knows the chef's cuisine and develops a wine cellar to complement it. Sommeliers buy the wine, tracking down difficult-to-obtain bottles at auction or from collectors. Part of the daily routine is to sample dozens of wines, searching for new stars.
In Las Vegas, sommeliers can take home $100,000 a year, twice the paycheck they would receive in San Francisco or Los Angeles. Wine directors managing the cellars for well-known restaurants or hotels earn as much as $150,000.
The master class
STILL, it's a young person's career, with days that start mid-morning and last until the final guest is served. And, as a new generation of sommeliers looks to get ahead, more are drawn to the Court of Master Sommeliers, a rigorous certification program that originated in Britain 37 years ago.
There are 16 master sommeliers working the Strip, the highest concentration of these wine professionals anywhere in the world. In addition, perhaps 30 of Vegas' hundreds of sommeliers have earned advanced certificates, the step preceding master sommelier.
"You can get your MS faster here than anywhere else," says Rob Bigelow, a master sommelier and wine director of Bellagio supervising 32 wine outlets. In Vegas, training for the exam is organized and thorough.
But although hundreds of millions of dollars worth of wine flows through the Strip's restaurants and casinos each year, much of it expensive, the Vegas wine scene is stuck back in the days of the $3.99 buffet. Sommeliers say it can be impossible to get exciting wines -- those obscure, small production labels that make a wine list sparkle.
The unusual wines they do get may take months to arrive, while the same wine would be delivered in a few days to a Los Angeles restaurant. And the prices? Wholesale prices for wine are often 30% higher in Las Vegas than in Los Angeles or New York.
"Sommeliers are extremely frustrated with the difficulty of building a great wine list in Las Vegas," says William Sherer, a master sommelier and wine director at Aureole, New York chef Charlie Palmer's restaurant at the Mandalay Bay Resort. "Wine has dramatically lagged behind food here. It's a real disservice to consumers."
For sommeliers, that can lead to a career dead end. Las Vegas slaps on the "golden handcuffs," Sherer says. Since the mass influx of sommeliers started with the opening of Bellagio in 1998, few have left Las Vegas. Many resign themselves to being part of the system instead of fighting it.
A single wine distributor, Miami-based Southern Wine & Spirits, dominates the Strip. And that, says Paul Roberts, a master sommelier and wine director for Thomas Keller's restaurants, including Bouchon at the Venetian Resort, is the root of the problem. Without competition, Southern has little incentive to improve service or to control prices.
"You can't get the wine you want in Vegas. A lot of what we have [at Bouchon] we bring in from California. Prices are much higher in Las Vegas," he says.
