The finalists enjoy a lavish dinner accompanied by vintage rosé Champagne
customers to have the same experience in style year after year.”
She adds that the style the winemakers are looking for is driven by three pillars: bright fruitiness, a seductive palate, and elegance and maturity. It’s a leap for even the trained sommeliers present to understand fully how the wines in front of them will combine to create a non- vintage that expresses those characteristics. “The base tasting is very difficult,” Brau- weiler explains. “For the first time you just taste acidity, but I’ve done a couple now and I’m beginning to understand about the blending. “You come to a conclusion that you need to balance the acidity, but to identify the wines is very hard. As Elise said, you need at least three years working with them to understand the wines and the process.” Scade adds: “You can see that once they take all these individual components on board, it can have stunning results if you know what you’re doing. But for these professionals it’s
“The style the
winemakers are looking for is driven by three pillars: bright fruitiness, a seductive palate, and elegance and maturity”
about understanding the thinking and tech- nique behind the product.” Fortunately for the finalists, they don’t have long to wait to explore Moët’s Champagne that has had plenty of time to develop, since dinner is accompanied by a vintage Rosé tasting, with vintage white Champagne explored the follow- ing morning. For first-time finalist Ladislav Basta, from the Kitchin in Edinburgh, the experience is eye opening. “It’s a great chance for us som- meliers to get an insight into the philosophy
of the house,” he says. “It’s obviously great to taste old vintages and see how they have devel- oped, but the whole understanding and his- tory of the Champenois was actually the greatest thing that this trip showed us.” For Basta, though he is keen to do well, it’s as much about the experience and adding to his technical knowledge as it is taking on his contemporaries for the title.
“I’m not stressed about the final,” he adds. “I’ve met a great bunch of guys and whatever the outcome is it has still been a great oppor- tunity to learn and meet other professionals.” There is certainly plenty of camaraderie on
the finalists’ trip, though each of the competi- tors takes the opportunity extremely seriously. Given the talent on show, it’s only a pity that there can only be one winner. “It’s fair to say everyone who’s ever won this competition has gone on to great things,” Scade says. “Though even if they don’t win, every competitor will have learned something to take back to their business.”
▲
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23