A few years ago, when Silas Ndung’u told his father he was going to South Africa to study to become a sommelier, his father had only one question: “Have you decided to be a drunkard?”
It was a reaction Silas had encountered often. At the time, most people had no idea what a sommelier was or what the profession entailed. But things have changed. With the growth of Kenya’s wine culture, the work of wine professionals is becoming more visible.
According to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, a sommelier is a trained and certified wine and beverage specialist who acts as a bridge between winemakers and consumers.
The job goes beyond tasting and recommending wine. It involves understanding wine, managing lists, advising on pairings, and helping establishments make purchasing decisions.
“Product knowledge is key, but you also have to balance that with business responsibilities. So you have to be very good at managing inventory,” says Silas.
His entry into the profession began with coffee. While working in a service role at a Kenyan coffee company, he underwent barista training, where he learned to identify and balance different flavour notes without allowing one ingredient, such as sugar, to overpower the others.
He later joined a five-star hotel, where he broadened his knowledge of food and beverages, from coffee and tea to spirits and wine. An unexpected vacancy then changed the direction of his career.
Silas Ndung’u Njoki, a Kenyan sommelier working at Azamara Cruises, based in Miami, Florida.
Photo credit: Pool
“A bartender quit, and they needed someone who could stand in while they looked for another bartender,” he says.
He was offered the interim position, a role that gave him opportunities to taste different drinks and introduced him to wine. Fascinated by its layers of flavour, he wanted to understand more, but what made him take it seriously was an embarrassing moment.
“My manager invited me to a wine tasting and asked me to give my opinion on the wines. I was naive, and I assumed the sweetest, fruitiest offering was the best wine simply because it tasted better,” he says. His manager’s disappointment was not lost on him.
“I could see in his eyes that he’d expected a lot more. Maybe he thought I knew more, but I didn’t.”
Determined not to find himself in that position again, Silas began building his knowledge of wine. He read whatever he could find online and took advantage of the hotel’s internal training programmes. His efforts earned him the bartender position permanently and began translating into better guest reviews and improved revenue, eventually attracting the attention of the hotel’s general manager.
When asked what the hotel could do to help him grow professionally, Silas proposed training as a sommelier. After researching available courses and presenting a training budget to management, he secured the hotel’s support to study in South Africa. He travelled there in 2016 to undertake the Wine & Spirit Education Trust (WSET) Level 2 qualification, returning in 2017 for Level 3.
The training was not cheap. Tuition, textbooks, and examinations alone cost him about Sh70,000 for Level 2 and Sh120,000 for Level 3.
Since no institution in Kenya offered the courses at the time, he also had to factor in return air tickets, accommodation, and food in South Africa, which added an estimated Sh100,000 to each trip. He financed the training through a combination of support from the hotel, personal savings, and help from a guest.
Pay and continuous learning
Today, Silas works as a sommelier for Azamara Cruises. His current earnings, which include sales commissions, are four to five times the Sh120,000 he took home each month in Kenya.
“Although things are changing, the African market is still not very receptive to our profession. Professionals are not always compensated in a way that reflects the work they put in. This profession requires continuous learning, but the rewards do not always match the investment. That is one reason many of us leave to seek opportunities in Europe and America, where our expertise is better appreciated and rewarded,” he says.
But the demands of the profession go beyond the investment in training and the challenge of finding a market that values that expertise.
There is also a level of personal discipline that is not always visible to outsiders. Silas says a successful sommelier must maintain control over their relationship with alcohol.
“People see us holding glasses and think we have a good life, but our job is not about drinking. Sometimes we even taste and spit because this is an alcoholic beverage. It requires discipline. If you abuse it, you mess up your career,” he says. “I have seen my colleagues lose their jobs because they struggled to exercise that self-control.”
Sam Ndichu is a Knowledge and Training Manager at Dion Wines and Spirits, an alcoholic beverage wholesaler. Much of his work draws on his training and experience as a sommelier.
Samuel Ndichu, a Knowledge and Training Manager at Dion Wines and Spirits, whose work draws on his training and expertise as a sommelier.
Photo credit: Pool
“I conduct training for our customers to build their capacity and help them become more knowledgeable wine professionals and consumers,” he says. “I also organise supplier visits, tastings, wine dinners and other events, as well as activations. I develop proposals for customers and even help the office team create digital content.”
Keen to point out that working as a sommelier does not necessarily mean spending one’s days on a hotel floor recommending and serving wine, Sam says the profession offers several career paths, depending on one’s strengths and interests.
“It’s like being an artist. Knowing how to paint doesn’t mean you only paint houses, you can do portraits, murals, or cartoons. Similarly, with sommelier skills, you can work at events, for an importer, in sales, consulting, teaching, or even in wine journalism. Some people
work on cruise ships, while others create content around wine,” he says. “I’ve worked in sales, and I’m now transitioning into education because I feel that is where I can make a difference by inspiring the next generation.”
The opportunities are there, he says. The challenge is finding your place in the profession.
“I was working for a wines and spirits wholesaler in 2010 when one of my customers decided to open a wine shop in Karen. We partnered for that, and that is how I got seriously into wine,” he says. “To be able to serve the very knowledgeable clientele in that part of town, I had to self-teach some things.”
He later went on to pursue professional qualifications, including WSET Level 3 and Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) Level 1 certification. He has also tested his knowledge in competitions, including the Wines of South Africa Sommelier Cup in 2019, and the more recent Best of Kenya Sommelier competition.
But like Silas, building that expertise has come at a cost. Beyond the course fees, sourcing wines for tasting and practice can be expensive. During his Level 3 studies, Sam sometimes encountered bottles costing Sh5,000 each, with several required for a single course exercise. To manage the expense, he and his classmates pooled resources, each buying different bottles before meeting to taste and study together. That spirit of collaboration, he says, extends even to times of competition.
“It really takes a village. Most of us are lucky that we are friends before we are competitors,” he says. “I can approach a competitor who is also a fellow importer and ask for a good price on a wine I need to try, or find out whether they are holding an event where I can taste it. Sometimes, they are willing to open their hearts, their wallets and even their offices to help us.”
Another investment that is harder to quantify, he says, is time. Students must fit studying and exam preparation around full-time jobs and family responsibilities, often taking leave days and sacrificing weekends and time with loved ones.
Still, if he could do it all over again, Sam says he would have started investing in professional qualifications much earlier.
“I got my first few jobs through people who knew my work, but once I got the certification, things became much easier because it gave employers a guarantee of my knowledge,” he says. “The competitions also opened doors for me. They put a spotlight on me and gave me credibility and access to a different calibre of people. And because more opportunities come your way, you have the privilege of choosing which doors to walk through.”
Another wine professional who believes the investment is worth it is Victoria Ngigi, whose journey into the industry began with a practical problem.
“In 2015 I was working a front-facing role at a Spanish restaurant,” she says.
Victoria Ngigi, founder of The Wine Mascot Kenya, creator of VinyoBuddy, an AI wine assistant, and Head of HORECA at Bila Shaka Brewery, during a wine tasting event in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Pool
“They had a wine wall that you could see immediately when you walked in, which had about 30 to 50 wines that I’d never seen in my life but was expected to sell. I’d done hospitality, but the only interaction I had with wine at the time was 4th Street and Cellar Cask, so I had to learn.”
The restaurant’s head sommelier noticed her interest and began taking her along to sessions organised by wine suppliers and importers.
Around the same time, she attended training organised by Wines of South Africa (WoSA), which further fuelled her interest in wine.
She worked in food and beverage management before moving into sales. Alongside these roles, she pursued professional training, including an international bartending certificate from South Africa and qualifications from WSET, ASI, the Court of Master Sommeliers (CMS) and California Wines.
Beyond opening up career opportunities that might otherwise have remained out of reach, the investment also gave Victoria the confidence to speak about wine in a knowledgeable but accessible way, making the subject easier and more enjoyable for consumers to understand.
She now draws on that expertise as Head of Horeca(Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafés/Catering) at Bila Shaka Brewery, and also as the founder of Wine Master Kenya and Vinyo Buddy, online platforms aimed at making wine knowledge more accessible to people who may not immediately be able to afford formal qualifications.
She also took part in the Ubuntu competition in South Africa last year and volunteered at the Best Sommelier of the World competition in Lisbon. The experiences showed her how much Kenyan sommeliers still have to learn and what they can work towards. But she also sees signs that the local market is growing, bringing more opportunities with it.
“There was a time when you couldn’t find someone working as a sommelier, but now I come across so many posts about people seeking sommeliers for their wine departments,” she says. “We have so many wine-focused places now, including wine bars, and these days, there is a wine tasting almost every week.”
For Soraiya Ladak, that investment has now taken her onto the global stage. Her wine journey began with a desire to bring something different to her family’s business, The Wine Shop, which imports wine and operates a restaurant and retail shop.
Having previously worked with the United Nations Environment Programme, she joined the family business and looked for ways to contribute beyond its day-to-day operations.
Improving family business
That search led her into professional wine education. She has completed WSET Levels 2 and 3, ASI Level 1 and the introductory course from CMS, with further qualifications still on her list.
The knowledge has strengthened her work with customers, enabling her to make informed recommendations, curate wine lists for wholesale clients and train their staff. It has also created opportunities for marketing and brand partnerships.
Her learning recently culminated in representing Kenya at the Best Sommelier of the World Competition, which she loosely describes as the Olympics of wine. She competed against sommeliers from 66 countries, as one of only five African representatives.
The competition tested a broad range of skills, including blind tasting, beverage identification, food pairing, and service.
Soraiya Ladak, sommelier and Managing Director of The Wine Shop, represented Kenya in the Best sommelier of the world competition in Lisbon, Portugal.
Photo credit: Pool
Although it was her first time competing at that level, Soraiya says she was encouraged by her performance. She correctly identified two of the six wines in the blind-tasting exercise and a fortified spirit during the service task. More than the result, she considers the experience an opportunity to show that Kenya belongs on the international stage and to bring back knowledge that can help other local professionals.
As a board member of the Sommeliers of Kenya Association (SOKA), she hopes to use what she has learned to support and mentor young people interested in wine and hospitality. She also believes businesses need to recognise the commercial value of employing qualified sommeliers.
“When you have someone qualified and experienced in that particular department, you’re able to drive revenue and sales for that product rather than just having it sit on the shelf or on your menu,” she says. “We need to invest in young sommeliers as a profession and pay them well, what they are valued and what they are due, because we really need to grow the industry.”
