Sommelier Services Ethics Standards

---
name: sommelier-services-ethics-standards
description: |
  Apply the ethical codes and professional standards that govern a sommelier.
  TRIGGERS - Use when a sommelier needs a ethics & professional standards for restaurant guests and hospitality businesses in restaurants and wine merchants.
category: Sommelier Services
license: MIT
version: 1.0
---
# Ethics & Professional Standards — Sommelier Services

Apply the ethical codes and professional standards that govern a sommelier. The deliverable is an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps.
This skill is written for a sommelier working with restaurant guests and hospitality businesses in restaurants and wine merchants.

## When to use
- You are a sommelier preparing, delivering or reviewing this part of your work in restaurants and wine merchants.
- You need a defensible, repeatable approach that produces an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps.
- A colleague, auditor or client asks how this was done and what evidence supports it.

## Key Concepts
| Term | Meaning |
|------|---------|
| Terroir | the environmental factors giving a wine its character |
| Decanting | pouring wine to separate sediment and add air |
| Vintage | the year the grapes for a wine were harvested |

## Workflow
1. **Step 1** - Know the code that applies in restaurants and wine merchants: consent, confidentiality, honesty, competence and conflicts of interest
2. **Step 2** - Work through dilemmas with a framework: facts, stakeholders, options, code provisions, then decide and record
3. **Step 3** - Protect restaurant guests and hospitality businesses first where duties conflict, and be alert to how incorrect storage spoiling stock can arise from ethical shortcuts
4. **Step 4** - Declare conflicts of interest early and manage them transparently rather than hoping they stay invisible
5. **Step 5** - Raise concerns about others' practice through the proper channels, with evidence from wine lists, and support colleagues who do the same

## Profession-Specific Components
| Component | Details for Sommelier Services |
|-----------|-------------------------------|
| Core documentation | wine lists; tasting notes; cellar inventories; supplier records |
| Core tools & equipment | cellar management software; wine preservation systems; tasting glasses; temperature-controlled storage |
| People involved | restaurant guests and hospitality businesses; the sommelier; colleagues and other services in restaurants and wine merchants |
| Primary record | wine lists — keep it current, dated and attributable |

## Output Format
**Context:** [Situation in restaurants and wine merchants] | **Objective:** [What this must achieve] | **Audience:** [restaurant guests and hospitality businesses and other stakeholders]

The finished output is an ethics guide with principles, common dilemmas and decision steps, structured as:
1. Summary of position and evidence
2. Detail, following the workflow above
3. Decisions, actions, owners and dates
4. Review point and escalation route

### Action Plan
1. **Immediate:** Confirm scope, consent and the evidence available in wine lists.
2. **Short-term:** Complete the workflow steps and record outcomes against wine sales per cover.
3. **Medium-term:** Review results, close actions, and update local procedures in restaurants and wine merchants.

## Success Metrics
| Metric | Target | Method |
|--------|--------|--------|
| wine sales per cover | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from wine lists and reviewed on a set cycle |
| cellar stock accuracy | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from wine lists and reviewed on a set cycle |
| guest satisfaction | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from wine lists and reviewed on a set cycle |
| waste from spoiled wine | Agree a local target and track the trend | Measured from wine lists and reviewed on a set cycle |

## Guardrails & Quality Checks
- Never let this happen: incorrect storage spoiling stock.
- Never let this happen: over-service.
- Never let this happen: breakages of valuable bottles.
- Work only within the competence and authority of a sommelier; escalate or refer anything beyond it.
- Record facts and observations, not speculation, and keep records confidential to restaurants and wine merchants's rules.
- Verify names, dates, figures and measurements twice before anything is issued or signed off.
- Use only real, verified information from the case in hand — never invent results, credentials or evidence.

## Example (illustrative)
A sommelier in restaurants and wine merchants applies this workflow for restaurant guests and hospitality businesses: they open
wine lists, work through the five steps using cellar management software, and close by recording
the outcome against wine sales per cover and agreeing the next review date. (Illustrative example only —
replace with the real details of the case in hand.)