Best Sommelier of France 2008: Twelve sommeliers for one title

Best Sommelier of France 2008 Perpignan

Twelve sommeliers for one title

They will compete on November 9th and 10th in Perpignan...

Selection heats for the competition to find ‘France’s Best Sommelier’ organised at the beginning of January in Paris, Lyon, Toulouse and Colmar gave their verdict. There will not be eight candidates, as was the case in Strasbourg in November 2006, but twelve, who will meet again in Perpignan in November for a new selection phase to choose the three candidates for the final of the competition.
At the invitation of the Rousillon Wine Trade Committee, in collaboration with the Regional Association of the UDSF, two days of competition are planned later on this year on November 9th and 10th. These tests will decide who will succeed Pascal Léonetti (Auberge de l’Ill in Illhaeusern). The two former finalists in Strasbourg must be thinking hard about this event and not just when they are shaving in the morning! They are Ludovic Parfait, who now works at ‘Le Mas de Pierre’ restaurant in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and Manuel Peyrondet, who would like to bring this title back to the ‘Taillevent’ restaurant in Paris, in memory of Jean-Claude Vrinat, who died recently.

The twelve qualified:

Stéphane Debaille,
restaurant Le Lisita (Nîmes)
Xavier Deblock,
Domaine de Châteauvieux (Genève)
Julie Dupoy,
restaurant The Mill (Irlande)
Eric Goettelmann,
Bernard Loiseau (Saulieu)
Romain Iltis,
La Verte Vallée (Munster)
Pascaline Lepeltier,
Rouge Tomate Group (Paris)
Ludovic Parfait,
Le Mas de Pierre (Saint-Paul-de-Vence)
Antoine Petrus,
Hôtel de Crillon (Paris)
Manuel Peyrondet,
restaurant Taillevent (Paris)
Tristan Rigenbach,
La Pyramide (Vienne)
Benjamin Roffet,
restaurant Le Bec (Lyon)
Hervé Schmitt,
rest. Le Relais de la Poste
(La Wantzenau)

Numerous candidates

But other sommeliers, also present in Strasbourg nearly two years ago, have probably got the same<