11 AUGUST 13-19, 2026 westword.com WESTWORD | CONTENTS | LETTERS | NEWS | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | CAFE | MUSIC | portion again. Washuta is one of the remaining candi- dates still trying. He often has bigger things on his mind, though. An Avalanche of Consequences The Court of Master Sommeliers, a once- insular organization, found itself the subject of headlines worldwide; the scandal was even the topic of a “Jeopardy!” question. Three of the candidates sued, and a federal judge ordered the organization to turn over records of the investigation into the incident. The case has not yet been resolved. For the innocent candidates, invalidating the results took away far more than a diploma and a pin. Those who earn the title of Master Sommelier keep it for life. There’s no retest. No recertifi cation. Once you’re in, you’re in. And the benefi ts are tangible. Master Sommeliers are a rare lot, and as such are in high demand. Back when the Court still collected and reported this infor- mation, the average salary for an advanced sommelier was around $80,000 a year. For master somms, it was $160,000. Many master somms go to work for big wine wholesalers or become wine educators, fl ying around giving lectures to industry people and selling wine at a high level. They get paid to judge tasting events, act as spokes- people for industry bodies and specifi c wine regions, host tastings and generate interest from buyers, visitors and press. In the few short weeks he held the title, Washuta had already been approached with consulting and wine competition judging offers, all of which had a paycheck attached. His disappointment was about more than just money, of course. But money would soon become a very big factor in Washuta’s life. In August of 2019, just a few months after having his test results invalidated, Washuta’s partner, Sally Stewart, was diagnosed with ALS, a degenerative nervous system disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. They’ve been together since 2013, and met working in the wine industry in San Francisco. They moved around to Chile, Portland and Telluride before landing in New York, where she worked at Mario Batali’s Babbo and Wolfgang Puck’s Cut. She passed her Advanced Sommelier exam in 2018, and they were hatching a plan to leave the restaurant world to open a wine shop when Washuta passed his Master exam. Stewart’s diagnosis sped up those plans, bringing the couple back to Colorado, where they purchased the shop that would become Denver Wine Merchant in 2021. It’s now widely considered one of the best wine shops in the city, frequented by industry professionals and traveling somms. “We were, like, why stay in New York?” he says. “I couldn’t work in restaurants much longer. So let’s go somewhere cheaper and easier.” Stewart and Washuta quickly became a part of Denver’s wine scene, helping advance the city’s reputation while he studies to get his title back. This September, he will make another attempt at retaking the test. Until then, he spends part of every week practic- ing and preparing — which means tasting a lot of wine. The “Grid” As he prepares for his next attempt at the test, Washuta sits at a table in the Birch Road Social club, just a few blocks away from his store, with three glasses of red wine placed before him, practicing his blind tasting skills. He picks up the fi rst glass, idly twirls it with the practiced hand of someone who hasn’t touched anything but stems in de- cades, and his eyes go a little unfocused as he buries his nose into the goblet and takes a deep sniff. “Nose is clean, a youthful moderate- plus intensity,” he starts. “Fruit condition is just ripe, very crunchy, mostly in the red fruit camp. There’s a cranberry, pome- granate, raspberry, like, red apple skin. I think there’s a savory note here. There’s a green-kind-of-tarragon-anise-seed spice to it. Possible whole cluster fermentation. There’s a pretty good amount of rose in fl oral quality, mostly old dried red rose potpourri. No evidence of oak on the nose. I think a neutral cask, but I don’t think it’s stainless steel. There seems to be a little development in the fruit quality. There’s, like, just the slightest amount of dried-out quality. There’s a moderate-plus minerality, with crushed rock, a little white clay, and, like, a little button mushroom, as well. Maybe a little tint, hint of pickle juice.” That’s just from smelling it. Then he swirls again, takes a sip, and rattles off a simi- lar list of fl avors and textures. He thinks for a split second, and offers his initial conclusion. “This could be a gamay from France, a cab franc from France, pinot noir from France. I’m gonna say, fi nal conclusion, that it’s a gamay from France, from Beaujolais, cru level, 2023, of high quality.” Wrong. (It was a Châteauneuf-du-Pape.) But the next one, a pinot noir from Or- egon, he identifi es exactly. There are thousands of grape varietals in the world, and even though only a few hundred of them are used in mainstream consumption, it’s still an intimidating num- ber of possibilities to consider during a blind tasting examination of just six. The pool of potential wines used in the Advanced Sommelier tasting test consists of over 20 grape varieties and blends from over 10 countries and more than 30 regions (70 subregions). The Court of Master Som- meliers won’t disclose the list of potential wines that might be included in the Master test, but we know it’s more than that, and the PowerPoint it provides to candidates for guidance is 64-pages long. Again ... it’s a hard test. Those who pass don’t just have a naturally sharper palate than the rest of us. It’s trained through years of tasting and running the sen- sations experienced through what’s known as the “grid,” a tried-and-true method of eliminating as many of the potential conclu- sions as possible so the fi nal guess becomes more educated than wild. “It’s not something that comes naturally,” Washuta says. “You don’t take a sniff and say, ‘This is white Bordeaux.’ You don’t even think about what it is. You describe the wine, and then think what wine best fi ts that de- scription. If it’s white Bordeaux, it’s because it has both green and tropical notes, and it has oak. Only white Bordeaux shows that.” That takes practice, which takes time, and time is something Washuta has less of today than he did when he fi rst passed the exam. His mornings are spent caring for his wife: helping her get out of bed, shower, dress, eat. He has a business to run, manag- ing inventory, scheduling and conducting classes, and running a top wine club in the city (which, for $99 a month, gets you three bottles selected by Washuta and Stewart). He even has a part-time job adding wines and fi xing database errors for the wine collector app, CellarTracker. But he’s determined to keep going until he regains that title. Part of what drives him is the benefi t it would bring his and Sally’s business and the fi nancial help it would provide for her care. “It costs money to live with ALS in this country,” he says. But it’s not all a practical pursuit. Washuta can’t shake that nagging knowledge that he had the title, he had the key to the secret club. He knows what’s on the other side of the door that was closed to him eight years ago, and he’s not stopping until he gets back in. “I’ve asked myself, ‘Do I really need this?’” he says. “Probably not. It probably won’t really change my life. I’ll still be doing the same thing, anyway. … But it’s been my goal since level one. It’s an extremely prestigious title. This is what I chose to be. Why stop halfway?” And through it all — the tests, the scan- dal, the disappointment — he continually reminds himself what it’s all about. Past the money. Past the title. It all comes down to a simple love of wine that makes it all worth pursuing. “It’s not just work to me. I still love it,” he says. “There’s still something I love about wine that brings people together. And people who aren’t enjoying it are missing out. It’s just one of the more interesting place-spe- cifi c products of both man and nature that I just love. I still think it’s really cool.” Denver Wine Merchant is located at 3911 Fox St. and is open from noon to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Sunday. For more information, visit denverwine- merchant.com. Washuta on a recent trip to Italy, enjoying his favorite pastime. Washuta in 2018 after receiving the coveted Master Sommelier pin, before it was taken away from him. STEPHEN CARDINALE (STEPHENCARDINALE.COM) SALLY STEWART
