Japanese sommelier named best in Asia and Oceania

Japanese sommelier Wataru Iwata has been named the champion of the ASI Best Sommelier of Asia & Oceania 2018 competition, and will now go on to compete for the world title next year.

29-year-old Japanese sommelier Wataru Iwata was named the champion of the ASI Best Sommelier of Asia & Oceania

His victory followed a hard-fought final that concluded three days of competition in Kyoto, while Hong Kong-native Reeze Choi came in second, triumphing over hundreds of top sommeliers in the region.

Justin Ho Li Vern, from Malaysia, was named the second runner up, and another top Hong Kong sommelier, Derek Li of JIA Group, was among the nine semi-finalists in the competition.

Andrés Rosberg, president of ASI, said: “With a record number of countries and candidates that were more skilled and knowledgeable than ever, the 2018 ASI Best Sommelier of Asia and Oceania is yet another sign of our profession’s growth in the region. ASI is very proud of this development and will continue to support sommeliers in this part of the world and encourage their participation in the global sommelier community. We look forward to seeing Wataru compete with colleagues from around the world in Belgium, next year.”

The three finalists competed in rounds of cocktail preparation, blind tasting of four wines and other beverages, in addition to food and wine pairing before finally offering guests wine purchase advice.

After the series of tests, the finalists went on to battle it out for two more rounds: a quiz and Champagne service.

The other six semi-finalists were: Mattia Antonio Cianca (Australia), Derek Li (Hong Kong),Taku Iguro (Japan), Andrea Martinisi (New Zealand), Marek Przyborek (New Zealand) and Thomas Hsin-Wei Ho (Taiwan).

“I am happy for being one of the candidates of such big competition,” runner up Choi said, speaking to dbHK. “But I am a bit disappointed by my performance of the final competition. Because I made some mistakes that I never make during training. However, it was my honor to meet all the great sommelier from around the world. Also it was great to compete with all the candidates, especially Wataru Iwata. He is a strong sommelier, and after the competition we all became good friends.”

Derek Li added: “I felt proud that being one of the candidate who represent Greater China and believe that’s not easy especially all of the 24 candidates are the champion, represent their country and they’re all knowledgeable and skillful. My dream is being a professional sommelier and show people around the world the professionalism from our country.”

The 29 year-old native of Kyoto will now compete for the ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2019, which will take place next March in Antwerp, Belgium.