UK Sommelier of the Year 2010: the search for a star starts here
The Academy of Food & Wine (AFW) has launched its UK Sommelier of the Year competition for 2010 and is inviting entries from sommeliers and front-of-house professionals across the country.
The competition, sponsored by House of Champagne Piper-Heidsieck, seeks to test the product knowledge, serving ability and customer service skills of sommeliers and wine service professionals. It is one of the industry’s toughest competitions, and since it launched 30 years ago, has become a prestigious accolade for sommeliers and wine professionals to win.
The 2009 Sommelier of the Year was Laura Rhys, head sommelier at Hotel TerraVina in Hampshire. The previous year Gearoid Devaney, then head sommelier of Tom Aikens in London, scooped the top prize.
Victor Lanson from First Drinks, Piper-Heidsieck’s UK distributor said: “We are looking forward to another exciting Sommelier of the Year competition, with some top quality entrants. This competition is all about raising the profile of this profession and encouraging and rewarding those individuals who have become the best in the business."
Entries are being sought by the Academy from any establishment in the hospitality sector. In the first round of the competition candidates are asked to complete a written questionnaire. From those entries around 100 are invited to one of five regional finals where they will complete a blind tasting, interview task and theoretical test.
The winners and highest scoring candidates from the regional finals are then invited to the semi-finals, held in London in April 2010, where they will complete a gruelling round of tests. The best three then go forward to the final held later that day.
Employers are invited to nominate a member of their staff for the competition by downloading an entry form from www.acfws.org or by calling the Academy on 020 8661 4646. The closing date for entries is 11 December 2009.
