On Cicerones, Sommeliers, and The Cult of The “Expert”

People, for  whatever strange reason, don’t seem to trust their own palates to tell them if what they’re drinking is good or bad. For at least the past twenty-five years, I’ve had no fewer than a dozen inquiries/requests each year, along the lines of “Why don’t you/Do you have plans to…get your sommelier certification?” One Seattle guy who administers the tests basically offered to put the fix in; test me at my convenience, with a vague intimation that he would “give me a heads-up about the rough patches.” I always politely (I hope) demurred when asked because A) it’s nobody’s business if I decide to seek that certification and B)