Although not yet widely employed in South Africa, professionally trained sommeliers in Europe and North America are in some cases accorded celebrity status. They are considered an influential gateway to the high end of the wine market. Their opinions carry great weight and winemakers assiduously court them.
They serve as wine stewards who procure wines for their fine-dining establishments, compile restaurant wine lists and recommend wines to pair with foods. Some even make their own boutique-label wines that are highly sought after by wine connoisseurs.
The 12 Sommelier Cup contestants were flown to South Africa after scoring the highest results in their home countries, when they were tested on their service capabilities and knowledge of South African wine. All full-time professional specialists in wine service, they arrived at the Cape earlier last week for first-hand exposure to the best of local wine and dining culture and to meet some of the country's top winemakers.
The first runner up is Morgan Harris from the US and second runner-up was Anna Sviridenko from Russia. The other entrants were:
A six-member panel that included two international Master Sommeliers and a group of South African certified sommeliers examined the finalists. They were tested on their theoretical knowledge of South African wines and had to taste wines blind and identify them correctly by variety and vintage. The top three scorers then had to appear in front of an audience, to be tested in a mock restaurant situation and asked to correctly decant wines, make wine and food pairing recommendations and correctly identify wines tasted blind.
Fascination for the role of sommeliers has grown to such an extent that last year's documentary movie Somm, about four sommeliers who attempt to pass the prestigious Master Sommelier exam, a test with one of the lowest pass rates in the world, has been screened worldwide. It is scheduled to come to South Africa later this year.
WOSA CEO, Su Birch said the competition had followed the highly successful inaugural event, held in 2010, the year of the FIFA World Cup, when the global focus was on South Africa as the host country.
"At that time, we wanted to highlight our country's great and very food-friendly wines to benefit from the worldwide attention South Africa was enjoying. The response to the first Sommelier Cup was very enthusiastic and helped to raise the profile of our wines in an upmarket restaurant environment.
"We decided to hold another contest this year, as currently South African wines are earning many favourable reviews from some of the world's leading critics. They are calling ours one of the most exciting and original wine-producing nations of the time and we wanted to take advantage of the prevailing positive interest," concludes Birch.
For more information, go to www.wosasommeliercup.co.za or follow via #WOSASomm.
