Launceston Place sommelier wins Amorim Taster of the Year award

Polish sommelier Piotr Pietras MS has been awarded the title of Amorim’s Taster of the Year at the 2017 Court of Master Sommeliers Awards.

Piotr Pietras

Each year, cork producer Amorim awards a hand-made trophy to the candidate who scores the highest marks in the tasting examination as part of the gruelling three-day skills and theory assessment to achieve the coveted MS qualification.

This year, the accolade was awarded to Piotr Pietras, 29, head sommelier at London’s Launceston Place, who this year became one of just five sommeliers elevated to MS status, joining the ranks of less than 250 top wine professionals world-wide.

“It is a great honour to be awarded the Amorim Trophy, in front of so many of my colleagues and contemporaries,” he said.

“For me, wine has always been a big passion, and I never stop learning – not only to taste and recognise different wines, but also to talk about them to my customers, and pass on that enthusiasm. It will be great to have the opportunity to visit the cork forests in Portugal and see the production of those top quality stoppers which I pull from bottles every day. Then I will have even more to talk about.”

Originally from Kolobrzeg in northern Poland, Piotr has worked as a wine professional for six years, starting at the Sheraton Poznan Hotel and then the City Park Hotel in Poland. Named ‘Best Polish Sommelier’ for the past two years, he recently represented his country in the prestigious Best Sommelier of the World championship, where he ranked 10th place out of over 60 global contestants.

He came to London four years ago to work initially for Richard Corrigan in Mayfair, and then at Gordon Ramsay’s Maze restaurant. Piotr joined Launceston Place in 2015. This year Piotr came second in the Best Sommelier of Europe competition, and won the UK Young Sommelier of the Year title.