A member of the Italian Senate has proposed a bill to create an official register of wine professionals in Italy, saying that current requirements are unclear, and suggesting that the profession is full of amateurs.
Senator Pierfrancesco Gamba has said the register is required to: "better define the requisites to become a professional sommelier, a category which today sees people call themselves experts just because they have taken wine tasting courses".
The Italian Sommeliers Association (AIS) together with Italian Federation of Sommeliers, Hotel and Restaurant Operators (FISAR) has opposed the making of a register, stating that it's being put in place for private interest groups, and that their diploma courses provide the training needed to become an expert.
I am ambivalent about the proposed bill, and having completed the AIS courses myself I neither consider myself an expect, nor 'just' a wine taster. The Italians are probably creating more work and bureaucracy for themselves than necessary (they seem to very good at that) and I should imagine that a person's expertise and professionalism would be judged by those in the industry, rather than the existence of any register. I completed what are quite rigorous courses from AIS, but I wouldn't purport to be a professional sommelier in the same way that I wouldn't pretend to be one because my name appeared on a register.
Source | VinoWire
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