France’s ‘Best Young Sommelier’ competition

Competition France

France’s ‘Best Young Sommelier’ competition

The UDSF will continue to run this competition in 2009

Jean-Pierre Steinsulz, directeur commercial de la maison Ruinart (à gauche) et Serge Dubs, président de l’Union de la sommellerie française (à droite) ont félicité le vainqueur Antoine Pétrus et déjà évoqué l’avenir avec la naissance du Trophée de l’UDSF en 2009.

“We must accept the decision
taken by those who have achieved
such a tremendous amount
for the sommelier profession
and we should acknowledge
that no other organisation worldwide has done so much for our metier.
So after 28 years of a unique partnership at such a financial level,
this should not be seen as a divorce.
It is simply the beginning
of a new venture …”

In other words, the sommelier profession could not do without such a competition to which Ruinart wished to put an end. “We must accept the decision taken by those who have achieved such a tremendous amount for the sommelier profession and we should acknowledge that no other organisation worldwide has done so much for our metier” pointed out Serge Dubs, President of the Union of the French Sommelier Profession, who was in fact the first person to win the European Ruinart Trophy. “So after 28 years of a unique partnership at such a financial level, this should not be seen as a divorce. It is simply the beginning of a new venture …”

The UDSF will indeed take over the organisation of this contest henceforth. “First of all, we know that Ruinart will continue to provide their backing, but in a less exclusive manner. We therefore intend to seek new partners in order to make financing viable, because we feel this competition is essential for young professionals. It gives them motivation, maintains a spirit of competition and provides them with an initial constructive image of the sommelier profession. But the organisation of this competition must be done correctly, because it cannot accept mediocrity.”

In two years’ time, the UDSF Trophy competition should reveal the name of its first winner. He or she is somewhere in France now, but certainly not in Reims.Jean Bernard