World sommelier competition kicks off

Nearly 60 of the world’s top sommeliers arrived in Mendoza, Argentina at the weekend to commence the fifteenth edition of Le Concours du Meilleur Sommelier du Monde.

Andres Rosberg, Andreas Larsson, Edgardo del Popolo, Susana Balbo and Paolo Basso

Each of the 58 sommeliers representing their country will battle it out in a series of tests in a bid for the title of Best Sommelier of the World 2016.

“The candidates don’t know anything about the competition format or questions,” explains Ricardo Grillet from the Technical Committee. “All they know is that there is a written theory, service and tasting part, they don’t know in what order or when to expect the different tests over the four days.”

The competition was first held in 1969 and the program varies each year depending on the host country. This is the first time it has been held in Argentina. and the Argentine Sommelier Association has been planning for this event for almost three years.

“We started planning 1000 days ago,” says General Coordinator Maria Laura Ortiz. “It is a great honour for us to host the competition. Our profession is a new profession in Argentina, our first sommelier school was founded in 1999.

“Today we have a very big industry team helping: we have 125 volunteer sommeliers from Argentina cleaning over 14,000 glasses for the competition, we have 84 wineries sponsoring the event, and we have over 1000 wines for the sommeliers to taste this weekend.”

The event is combined with World Malbec Day, which took place on the 17th April, as the visiting sommeliers, journalists and representatives will also be invited to different tastings in the country’s wine capital on Sunday.

The winner will be announced Tuesday night.