Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas Apology

The Court of Master Sommeliers, Americas recognizes that it has failed its membership, our industry, and most importantly, the women who bravely shared their stories. We are profoundly sorry and offer our sincerest apologies to Jane Lopes, Courtney Schiessl, Christina Chilcoat, Rachel van Til, Rania Zayyat, Ivy Anderson, Victoria James, Madeleine Thompson, Liz Dowty Mitchell, Alexandra Fox, J.R. Ayala, Courtney Keeling, Kate Ham, and any woman who has experienced similar incidents of harassment and violence.

The CMS-A hears you. We understand there are major changes that need to be made to our organization. We have been mobilizing to radically shift the way we are handling issues within the Court and are taking the following steps toward change:

• Geoff Kruth resigned as a member of CMS-A and forfeited his title after we notified him of an outside investigation.  He is still subject to further disciplinary action based on the investigation.

• Robert Bath, Matthew Citriglia, Fred Dame, Eric Entrikin, Greg Harrington, Drew Hendricks, Matt Stamp, Brian Cronin, Fred Dexheimer, Joseph Linder and Devon Broglie have been suspended from all CMS-A programming, pending further action based on the results of investigations.

• The investigation will be led by the outside, independent firm Lagasse Branch Bell + Kinkead, which will examine all allegations to the fullest extent possible.

• We are encouraging everyone in the CMS-A community to report incidents of misconduct through our third-party Ethics Reporting Hotline HERE. Reports may be anonymous. Every report will be investigated.

• All members will be required to sign acknowledgement of an updated Code of Ethics that includes stronger language around sexual harassment, coercion and discrimination.

• All members must complete sexual harassment training before participating in any CMS-A activity.

• We are taking immediate steps to terminate our contract and relationship with GuildSomm.

We will work to regain the trust of the sommelier community and the confidence in our certifications through our actions.

We will continually share updates, and respond individually to feedback shared through our digital suggestion box HERE.