Vancouver’s Barbara Philip becomes Canada’s first female Master of Wine
By John Schreiner
September 16, 2007
Vancouver sommelier and wine educator Barbara Philip has become the second Canadian, and the first Canadian woman, to become a Master of Wine.
It is a huge accomplishment. Only 250 individuals world wide have the MW behind their names after having made it through an extremely tough course with a high failure rate.
The first MW in Canada was Russian-born Igor Ryjenkov, a product consultant for the Liquor Control Board of Ontario. He secured the designation in 2002.
Currently, at least three other British Columbians are engaged in MW course work: Vancouver Island vintner Giordano Venturi; and educators James Cluer and Rhys Pender, partners in a company called Fine Vintage Ltd. which, in 2005, began teaching the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses that are a foundation for anyone going on to become an MW.
According to the Oxford Companion to Wine – edited by Jancis Robinson, the first female wine writer to get the MW – this is “the wine trade’s most famous and demanding professional qualification.” It is awarded by the London-based Institute of Masters of Wine.
The Institute was established in 1953 and initially limited its membership to individuals involved in the British wine trade. Robinson, in her 1997 book, Tasting Pleasure: Confessions of a Wine Lover, relates that this elitist group eventually recognized that the membership base was too narrow if the Institute was to survive.
“The result was that in late 1983 they relaxed the admissions requirements to include people who made their living through wine,” Robinson wrote.
“Doing an MW exam is a bit like I imagine climbing Everest: great when it’s over,” Robinson added. She passed in 1984 on her first try. Many candidates fail – and are allowed to fail one of the exams up to five times. That is why there are only 250 MWs. The final pass rate is about one-third of all who try to get the MW.
Philip managed a conditional pass on wine theory when she first wrote the MW exam and sailed through the second time after completing her theory paper and a rigorous tasting. That speaks volumes for how much she knows about wine. She has a degree in Fine Arts (theatre) from the University of British Columbia but made her career as one of Vancouver’s top sommeliers, notably at The Fish House in Stanley Park.
She now works as an educator and wine consultant, partnering with husband Iain in a company they call Barberiain Wine Consulting. She is a senior instructor and department head for the International Sommelier Guild. During the past six years, she has trained sommeliers in Seattle, Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver and Austin.
With her husband, she conducts numerous wine seminars and tastings. She also is a wine judge in many major competitions.
Getting the MW designation involves doing a wine thesis. Philip chose to look at the status of Pinot Blanc in the Okanagan. Could the variety be a signature variety for the Okanagan, she asked.
Her conclusion: it is well suited viticulturally and it produces good wine. But there is not a lot of excitement about Pinot Blanc wines compared with such varieties as Sauvignon Blanc or Pinot Gris.
“One of the main problems,” Philip notes, “is that no other New World region has elevated the status of Pinot Blanc by choosing it as its flagship. Ironically, this is one of the very reasons I thought it might be a good choice for the Okanagan.”
The bottom line: only half of the many industry people she interview thought that Pinot Blanc had much chance of emerging as a signature Okanagan wine. That will distress Pinot Blanc fans – but Philip’s MW research should have long-term commercial value to the B.C. wine industry.
John Schreiner is author of British Columbia Wine Country
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