Nine candidates for a title

Sommellerie Paris

Nine candidates for a title

Selections for the Contest of France's Best Sommelier

At the same time torture place and anteroom of glory, the lounges of the Hotel Baltimore in Paris have once again hosted the selection tests for a great professional contest, namely that of France’s Best Sommelier. Twenty-five candidates took up the challenge proposed by the UDSF* and faced the tests imagined by the technical committee headed by Christian Pechoutre, its director.
A long working morning that started with a nearly fun question­naire, proposed in the form of a slide show in order to test the general knowledge of the pretenders to a place in semi-finals. Nightmare for many participants, the test in English imposed a commented tasting of a red wine—Patrimonio, Domaine Leccia 2007. Then three brandies and spirits had to be identified within five minutes. The Highland Scotch Whisky, the Alsace Gewurztra­miner Marc and the Burgundy Ratafia left many speechless.

Then the questionnaire to answer within an hour enabled to rank the candidates even more precisely. “We are asked always more, and moreover the opening to the international dimension is every time more important” Pascaline Lepeltier recognized. With the experience of two finals, she especially arrived from New York, as did Fabien Mene (Daniel Boulud), to try to win her ticket to Marseille.

Came mainly to see the events, test and identify progress to be made, Olivier Tete (from La Baratte, in Grenoble) admits that living in the provinces does not give the same opportunities to taste than those put forward his Parisian pairs. But it did not make him regret the trip. The selections finished with a workshop on two rosés (Bourgueil 2011 from Domaine du Bel Air and Rosé de Phélan Ségur 2011) to be compared within two minutes.
The technical committee which included notably Olivier Poussier, David Biraud and Fabrice Sommier, decided at least to select nine candidates:
Jonathan Bauer-Monneret (Le Royal Monceau à Paris),
Maxime Brunet (L’Oasis à Mandelieu-la-Napoule),
Guillaume Favreau (Hôtel du Sapin à Charmey en Suisse),
Mikaël Grou (Hôtel George V à Paris),
Romain Iltis (La verte vallée à Munster),
Jean-Baptiste Klein (Le moulin de Mougins à Mougins),
Pascaline Lepeltier (Rouge tomate à New York, USA),
Florent Martin (Hôtel George V à Paris),
Antoine Petrus (Restaurant Lasserre à Paris).
On next October 14th and 15th, they will be welcomed in Marseille by the Interprofessional Committee of Provence Wines and the Association of Sommeliers of Alps-Marseille-Provence. The semi-finals will take place on Sunday, and the next day the finals, in the Pharo's Palace, will reveal the name of the successor of Benjamin Roffet, the 2010 winner in the Loire Valley.

Jean Bernard