Champagne Ruinart and Sommeliers Australia are delighted to announce the 2019 Ruinart Sommelier Challenge to be held in Sydney on Monday, 18 March. Applicants will go in the running for chance to win a once in a lifetime business class trip to France for exclusive training at Maison Ruinart.
Applications can be made online until 22 February 2019 and entry is open to all current ‘Sommelier’ members of Sommeliers Australia. This year, the Sommelier Challenge will select only 25 of Australia’s top sommelier talent to compete for the grand prize.
The Sommelier Challenge reflects Champagne Ruinart’s commitment to the development of the global Sommelier community, and invites talented sommeliers to test their skills with a blind tasting of four wines before enjoying a technical lecture and lunch with Ruinart Winemaker Caroline Fiot, who is visiting Australia for the second time in 2019.
The judging panel will select one sommelier from the group – based upon their blind tasting responses – to be the Ruinart Sommelier Challenge 2019 winner. The winner will be announced on 18 March 2019 at the conclusion of the training day.
The 2019 Ruinart Sommeliers Challenge will be held at the newly opened Flying Fish restaurant at The Star. Flying Fish was chosen due it’s philosophy on freshness, quality and dedication to meticulous preparation to produce something simple and elegant. A suitable partner to Ruinart that similarly follows a complex production process to produce stunning simplicity and freshness.
The winner of the Ruinart Sommeliers Challenge will receive a return business class trip to France to attend a four-day educational trip to Reims, hosted by Ruinart Chef de Caves Frédéric Panaïotis, in July 2019. The trip is an opportunity for top sommeliers from around the world to immerse themselves in the world of Champagne and enjoy rare tastings and experiences along with different producers, varieties and wines. The prize provides invaluable networking with peers from around the world and is truly a once in a lifetime experience.
The Challenge 2018 winner, Tim Perlstone, says: “I had an amazing time in Champagne and Paris with the Ruinart team. Frédéric and Caroline were incredible hosts, everything was very well thought through, all the activities and tastings were superb, and it was fantastic getting to know
the other winners from the US and Hong Kong – we are still in touch to this day. I would like to thank Ruinart for an experience of a lifetime.”
Caroline says of the Challenge: “We are committed to supporting the global sommelier community through career development and are pleased to work with Sommeliers Australia for the sixth year running. I am thrilled to return to Australia to discover the high level of competition following on from the 2018 Challenge.”
CLICK HERE to submit your Ruinart Sommelier Challenge application.
