On Wednesday 31 August, after a gruelling three day Scholarship programme of tasting assessment, our Education Scholarship Partners and Sommeliers Australia Committee members joined the 12 Scholars for the 2022 Education Scholarship Awards Ceremony at Ombra, in Melbourne.
Throughout the Education Scholarship programme (29-31 August) all 12 Scholars were marked on their wine assessment and communication technique. The top three scorers – Ella Stening, Lu Wang and Elly Webb – each displayed excellent communication skills with a focus on how their understanding of wine allowed them to better tend to the needs of consumers.
This was again evident during the final taste-off, where the three were asked to taste and assess one wine served blind, to determine which one of these talented young sommeliers would take home the title of 2022 Education Scholarship Dux.
Each candidate was given two minutes to assess the wine, and were then asked to present their findings. Sommeliers Australia’s Scholarship Tutors Chris Crawford, Bridget Raffal and Wiremu Andrews then compared notes and triple checked the final scores. It was a close competition, so this was not an easy task!
Congratulations to Ella Stening for being awarded 2022 Sommeliers Australia Education Scholarship Dux!
Ella’s consistent tasting and wine assessment skill, and willingness to risk naming varieties, vintages and regions saw them take home the Dux award of $2,000 towards an international wine education trip of their choosing.
Sommeliers Australia and our Education Scholarship Partners extend their congratulations to Ella and the other Scholars for fully committing to – and supporting each other through – this year’s Education Scholarship programme!
We look forward to seeing these 12 young sommeliers and wine professionals continuing to achieve great things in their chosen fields of wine.
Sommeliers Australia would also like to extend its gratitude to our 2022 Education Scholarship Partners, whose contributions made this year’s Scholarship programme possible. Without their support we would not have been able to deliver such a diverse tasting programme. Thank you.
The 2022 Education Scholarship cohort and their aligned Scholarship Partners:
| Zoe Brunton (NSW) | Torbreck |
| Richard Buck (VIC) | Jackson Family Wines |
| Lily Horneman (NSW) | Voyager Estate |
| Hannah Howard (NSW) | Accolade Wines |
| Christina Kaigg-Hoxley (VIC) | Handpicked Wines |
| Iesha Poor (WA) | Cape Mentelle |
| Victoria Hoi Pun (VIC) | Penfolds |
| Savanna Rose (VIC) | Cloudy Bay |
| Ella Stening (QLD) | New Zealand Winegrowers |
| Charlotte Stevens (NSW) | Chateau Minuty |
| Lu Wang (SA) | Samuel Smith & Son/Negociants Australia |
| Elly Webb (NSW) | RIEDEL |
With thanks to our Education Scholarship Partners:
