Wednesday, January 16, 2013

WORLD BEST SOMMELIER IN THE WORLD: WHAT IT TAKES TO BECOME ONE?


The 14th Best Sommelier of the World will take place in Japan Tokyo, on 27th, 28th and 29th March 2013.
The candidates and official delegations from over fifty countries are expected in Tokyo on the 26th at Grand Prince Hotel Takanawa where the quarter final (27th) and semi-final (28th) are planned.
The final, on the 29th afternoon, will gather the three best candidates and will take place at the International Forum in a room for 5 000 people.
The Gala dinner, for 600 guests, is planned at the Imperial Hotel.
The international official sponsors, supporting this event, are Arc International, Moët & Chandon, San Pellegrino & Acqua Panna, Nespresso, Suntory, Hess Family Estates, the CIVA, ViniPortugal, Wines of Austria, SommelierS International, Entaste and Vinexpo.
Women are increasingly competing and winning the title of best sommelier in their countries.
Veronique Rivest - Best Sommelie
Veronique Rivest - Best Sommelier
The title of 2012 best sommelier of America, meaning from Argentina to Canada, was won by a woman from Quebec Canada named Véronique Rivest who already won in 2009. Véronique is a wine writer for the newspaper Le Droit and for Radio-Canada in Ottawa, she also write for many food magazines and food TV networks. She will be contesting the world competition for the 3rd time in 2013, '3rd time is a charm' as they say.
However, never a women won Best World Sommelier. This time there is a dozen of women competing among the 50 candidates so it could be a woman world champion.
Most winners are from France, but the world is changing and France has to share its premium wines and top sommeliers with other countries gravitating in status.
List of Past Winners of the World Best Sommelier:
2010 Santiago, Chile: Gerard Basset, United Kingdom
2007 Rhodes, Greece: Andreas Larsson, Sweden
2004 Athens, Greece: Enrico Bernardo, Italy
2000 Montreal, Quebec: Olivier Poussier, France
1998 Vienna Austria: Markus del Monego, Germany
1995 Tokyo, Japan: Shinya Tasaki, Japan
1992 Rio del Janeiro, Brazil: Philippe Faure-Brac, France
1989 Paris, France: Serge Dubs, France
1986 Venice, Italy: Jean-Claude Jambon, France
1983 Brussels, Belgium: Jean-Luc Pouteau,France
1978 Lisbon, Portugal: Guiseppe Vaccarini, Italy
1971 Milan, Italy: Pietro Sattanino, Italy
1969 Brussels, Belgium: Armand Melkonian, France
The competition includes the obvious wine blind tastings, pairings and descriptions, but it also contains customer service evaluations such as opening a magnum of Champagne, and written examinations related to testing knowledge on climate, production, geology, viticulture, history, etc...
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