To Örebro University

Research on food and beverage combinations is dominated by the sensory sciences, where sensory taste is seen as objective and quantifiable. Knowing which beverages and foods to serve together to attain optimal sensory quality is a core competence of sommeliers. Still, little is known about how this competence is actually acquired. Furthermore, scholars of cultural sociology suggest that cultural aspects of taste as “good” or “bad” are products of social processes, rather than objective characteristics.

This paper explores the development of professional competence of food and beverage combinations, by focusing on sommeliers in Sweden. The study is based on qualitative focus group interviews of sommeliers (n = 21) in Sweden, with different levels and types of work experience.

A thematic analysis of the data demonstrated that sommeliers talk about “good” combinations as a matter of delicate and refined taste, acquired through long-term practical engagement with wine and food. Foods deemed “unrefined” were expressed as becoming legitimate as cultural capital when combined with the right beverage, for example by revaluating “lowbrow” food when combining it with wine. Competence and taste were also expressed as being acquired through relationships with important people – a network of actors who open doors to legitimate competence. In theoretical terms: social capital is converted into cultural capital – a resource of value in their everyday engagement with customers. The agency of the individual sommelier was also found to be important, as socialisation into the sommelier profession also requires sociability, creativity and a will to experiment and try new and sometimes odd combinations.

This paper contributes to the understanding of sensory and sociocultural taste, as well as the development of sommeliers’ social and cultural capital while performing their profession.