In mid-November, Serbian Sommelier Association (SERSA) organized the 7th National Sommelier Competition in Belgrade and the winner was Vuk Vuletić, 26-year-old sommelier from Belgrade. Contest was organized over two days. In very complex semi-finals, the knowledge and skills of 11 sommeliers among the best from Serbia were tested. Theory test based on ASI exam level of knowledge with three practical workshops: decanting with the tricks, sparkling wine service and computer test.
It was not easy to choose the three finalists because two competitors had same score at the end of the semi-final and to reach the third place in the final, international judging commission consisting of Isa Bal, Raimonds Tomsons and Samuil Angelov decided according to SERSA rules to have extra task for two competitors, Nenad Nedimović and Ljubomir Bošković. This extra task was about food and beverage pairing, so no two beverages come from the same country. After this, it was decided that Ljubomir Bošković would be the third finalist. First two finalists were Ivan Nikolić and Vuk Vuletić, both sommeliers at the Squer Nine hotel, Belgrade.
Final was held next day at the Hyatt Regency Belgrade Hotel in public. There were eight tasks for each sommelier. Six of them were done separately, and they did two tasks together, one was pouring a magnum of sparkling wine in 16 glasses and a quiz game – they had to recognize persons in the wine world, wineries and some formulas. Not easy at all.
Other six tasks were about beverage order –service of champagne and draft beer, decanting of a magnum of red wine, correcting of a wine list, food and wine pairing (with some non-existing vintages), spirits/beverage identification and a very interesting wine tasting; they had four flights of wines in which some had something in common and some did not belong to the group.
All three finalist passed the ASI certification in previous years and have the ASI International Sommelier Diploma. After a three-hour final round, very convincingly Vuk Vuletić won this competition. He will represent Serbia in the next world competition in Belgium.
Following Latvian Raimonds Tomsons, it is now his Estonian neighbor who has claimed victory on the European stage.
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