The wine expert on a restaurant floor. Years of study and tasting for a job that only exists in a small number of restaurants in Canada.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
The median pay is about $38,000 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $31,000 at the lower end to about $62,000 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
2 to 6 years, on the usual route, and you are paid while you train from the first day.
$1,000 to $6,500 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
It depends where you work. You need a licence, certificate or registration in Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Saskatchewan. Elsewhere there is none to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
Or read the whole thing here
What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$38,000
Lower end
$31,000
Upper end
$62,000
Job Bank lists sommelier inside its broad food and beverage server group, so these figures cover all servers, not wine specialists alone. The national median is $18.50 an hour, about $38,000 a year at 40 hours a week. The low is $15 and the high is $30 an hour. There is no official figure for sommeliers on their own.
$17.95 an hour
Ontario's general minimum wage from October 1, 2026, which servers who pour alcohol get too, with tips on top
Almost nobody is hired as a sommelier first. You work the floor as a server for a few years, study wine on your own time, and the wine role gets added to your job.
$20 an hour
The median in Quebec and British Columbia, the highest of the provinces
Yukon is higher still at $22. Quebec's upper end, $35, is the top of any province. Wine directors at leading restaurants and sales representatives at wine agencies are usually paid a salary, often with commission. Job Bank does not measure them separately.
Roughly, all in
$1,000 to $6,500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is the provincial alcohol service certificate, about 45 dollars in Ontario through Smart Serve, plus Wine and Spirit Education Trust Level 2. The high end adds the next level up and the wine you buy to taste, which is the cost nobody warns you about and which never really stops. Course prices vary a lot by provider, so treat these as rough. Some restaurants and hotels cover part of the course fee if you stay with them.
Roughly $1,000 to $6,500 for the first levels. Course prices vary by provider so treat these as rough. Some employers cover part of the fee if you stay.
Job Bank reports that 37.9% of people in this occupation group get at least one benefit on top of their wage.
Tips on high-priced tables
A sommelier sells the most expensive item on the bill.
Tasting and travel
Wine agencies run trade tastings, and producers host trips for buyers.
Staff meals and wine education
Good restaurants pour staff through their list.
Health and dental
Hotels and large restaurant groups yes, independents usually not.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
There is no degree. There are certifications, and there are years on a restaurant floor. Quebec has its own route: tap Quebec route to add it.
Get certified to serve alcohol
1 day
Smart Serve in Ontario, Serving It Right in British Columbia, ProServe in Alberta. Required by law before you pour, everywhere but Quebec, Newfoundland and Labrador and Yukon.
Work as a server
2 to 3 years
Two or three years in a restaurant with a real wine list. This is not optional. Service comes before wine knowledge.
Start formal wine study
1 to 3 years, part time
The Wine and Spirit Education Trust runs Level 1 through the Level 4 Diploma through course providers in many countries, including Canadian cities.
Take the sommelier exams
Years
The Court of Master Sommeliers Americas runs Introductory, Certified, Advanced and finally the Master Sommelier Diploma. Each level adds blind tasting and live service under exam conditions.
Take the wine list
5 years and up
Assistant sommelier, then sommelier, then wine director choosing what the restaurant buys and pours.
Geography
Wine study is mostly maps: regions, soils, climate, rivers.
Chemistry and biology
Fermentation, acid, tannin and how grapes grow.
French
Half the vocabulary and many of the best restaurants in Montreal.
Any restaurant job
Floor experience is the entry requirement nobody writes down.
There is no sommelier licence and no law stopping anyone from using the title, though most provinces require the alcohol service course. What restaurants actually look at is certification plus floor experience. The two credentials that carry weight are the Wine and Spirit Education Trust qualifications, which go from Level 1 up to the Level 4 Diploma, and the Court of Master Sommeliers, whose four steps end at the Master Sommelier Diploma. Canada also has a national association of professional sommeliers with provincial chapters.
Ontario
Niagara College runs a teaching winery, brewery and distillery, and Toronto has several approved wine course providers.
British Columbia
Approved course providers in Vancouver, and the Okanagan, Canada's other major wine region.
Quebec
Montreal has the deepest restaurant wine culture in the country and its own sommelier training.
Anywhere
Wine and Spirit Education Trust courses are taught online and in person by approved providers across Canada.
In Quebec sommelier training is a public vocational program, taken after a restaurant service diploma or enough time working in a dining room.
Secondary III or more
From age 16
The restaurant service DEP (Diploma of Vocational Studies) takes students from age 16 with Secondary III language, second language and math, or with a high school diploma.
DEP in Food and Beverage Services (5293)
About 9 to 14 months
960 hours of restaurant service. In English (5793) at St. Pius X and Pearson in Montreal, and in Cowansville.
Or work in the trade
Varies
People already working in a job related to the program can also be admitted without the DEP.
ASP (Attestation of Vocational Specialization) in Sommellerie (5314)
About 6 months
450 hours at several centres, including the ITHQ (Institut de tourisme et d'hôtellerie du Québec) in Montreal and the École hôtelière de la Capitale in Quebec City. Taught in French.
Sommelier training in Quebec is taught almost only in French. An English version, the Wine Service ASP (Attestation of Vocational Specialization) 5814, is on the books, but the provincial program listing shows no group offering it right now.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Advanced Sommelier
The third Court of Master Sommeliers level. The organization named 27 new Advanced Sommeliers in July 2026, which tells you how few people hold it.
Wine agency sales
Selling to restaurants and retailers. Salary plus commission, daytime hours, and usually better money than the floor.
Beverage director
Running wine, beer, cocktails and buying for a whole restaurant group.
Spirits and sake qualifications
The Wine and Spirit Education Trust and other bodies certify these too, and restaurants value the range.
A trained palate
Blind tasting is a practised skill, not a gift. Taste in groups, weekly, for years.
Harvest work
A season at a winery in Niagara or the Okanagan teaches you more than a textbook.
Memory technique
You are learning thousands of producers, vintages and appellations.
Sales instinct
The job is judged on wine sales, not on how much you know.
Canada has very few full-time sommelier jobs, nearly all of them in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver and Calgary. Most people who complete the certifications end up in wine sales, retail buying, winery hospitality or teaching rather than on a restaurant floor. Those are good careers. Just do not spend five years and thousands of dollars expecting the restaurant job to be waiting.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In at 2pm. Check what sold last night, place orders, receive deliveries and carry cases to the cellar yourself. Update the list, brief the servers on two new bottles and pour them a taste. Service from 5pm: reading tables, guiding people to a bottle that fits their budget without making them feel judged, decanting, pouring. After service you count inventory. You leave near midnight, and the reading and tasting happen on your days off.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
In 2026, 30 candidates sat the Master Sommelier exam in the Americas and 4 passed. There are only 305 Master Sommeliers in the whole world.
The Wine and Spirit Education Trust teaches through approved course providers in more than 70 countries, so a Level 3 earned in Toronto means the same thing in London or Tokyo.
Niagara in Ontario and the Okanagan in British Columbia are the two main wine regions, and Niagara College runs a working teaching winery, brewery and distillery where students make and sell the product.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Front of house first, then the rest of the field. See every career in food and hospitality.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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