Best Sommelier in Denmark
The day begins
The competition this year started at AOC with a blind tasting of 3 wines with 10 minutes for each: Riesling from Germany, a white from Jurancon and a red Rioja.
2 of the wines were straight forward (when you know what it is). The Riesling had a lot of green fruits, fresh acidity and a short finish. The Rioja had oak, dark fruits and was full bodied. The white wine from Jurancon was unexpected; it had oxidative nuances, ripe pear, ripe quince, hay, beeswax and honey. The test was more to see how we described the wine than to guess it. Multiple of the candidates were going for Chenin Blanc from Loire valley on it. Second task was 3 spirits in 3 minutes: 2 oak aged ones and 1 white. A Japanese whisky, 40 years old calvados and Nonino Grappa. The 40 years Calvados was a bit hard since it was mainly the oak that showed. Whisky form Japan is not a new thing but it's still hard to pinpoint, and usually not your first thought for whisky. The Grappa was a classic and I think everyone nailed that one. The last task was, as always, a written theory test with around 60 questions and 1 hour on the clock.
Ketil Sauer. Photo DSF
Next up there we switched location to Matrikel1 at Højbro Plads. We had a short break, some sandwiches a great wine tasting with the sponsors that started at 13.00, before the finalists were announced at 14.00 as well as the new member of Danish Sommelier Association who passed the qualification test: Congratulations to Joachim Jæger from ATerre!
Finally, the clock stroke 14.00 and the competition continued. Jakub Filipek, Michael Rønne Sørensen and myself (Ketil Sauer) were announced. Jokub and I had done a final before, while it was a first for Michael from Falsled Kro. Numbers were drawn at random resulting in Michael being first up, Jakub second and myself last.
The Final
The tasks were divided into 2 segments, a solo segment of 4 tasks followed by common tasks where all the finalists are together on the scene.
The first task was to correct a wine list — Identify different producers in wrong locations, wines not made, wrong category placement, wrong grapes etc.
2 Glasses of sherry - 4 minutes for the task
The next 2 tasks were linked to the first one as the wines available from the list were stored in a refrigerator on stage. Here the candidates had Jonathan Golver as a somms to help us get the wine, as well as say if something wasn’t available.
Next up was serving of 2 glasses of sherry, 4 minutes for the task, a straightforward task, where the option to suggest a pairing for the Fino Sherry, talk about the area of sherry, the new regulations, the new grapes allowed, fortified wine etc. will get extra points.
“Options included discussing Wachau’s 3-tier system, suggesting cheese, another course, or a digestive.”
The third task was to recommend and a bottle of white wine with Label Rouge Chicken, some Blaufränkisch, crushed of fennel and “Sauerkraut”, decant and serve the wine — since some of the wines listed in the list was linked to “another”, it was meant to be the “correct” wines, here one could turn into a challenge. The first 2 wines I asked for were duds that I had failed to recognize, so I asked a third time, this time for a Grauer Veltliner from Austria Wachau. A choice to enhance the herbaceousness of the fennel, the creaminess of the Blaufränkisch, and cleanse the fattiness of the Label Rouge and potatoes. Here was a possibility to switch to the 3-tier quality system in Wachau, recommend a cheese or another serving after the chicken, coffee/tea, digestive, maybe even a cigar.
The last solo task was to serve and decant a bottle of Mas La Plana 2017 that the guest had brought themselves, explain about the bottle since it was a gift from a former colleague, and recommend a suitable dish to go along with it. It's the Spanish flagship from Torres, made on Cabernet Sauvignon in Penedes DO. Here it was possible to talk about the house of Torres, the area of Catalunya, Cabernet Sauvignon (where Mas La Plana was the first premium red wine in Catalunya to be made on Cab S. in 1970), maturation of the wine, multiple food servings, recognize the gift, talk about why you would decant it, talk about the classic areas for Cabernet Sauvignon etc. there were many options. It's easy to remember everything when you are off stage but being put in the spotlight, I tend to forget half these things. There was no light available for the decanting – I don't know if this was a mistake or intended, but there were no sediments in the bottle making it easy as far as the craft of decanting goes: no old corks, no heavy sedimentation, readable label, bottle in good condition.
Recognitions game
Before the common final, Star Wine List, Wine lists of the year recognized the best wine lists in Denmark in different categories, where the sommeliers and venues behind the winning lists were congratulated on stage.
The common finale started with a picture task. Recognize the wine area by looking at a river. 10 pictures and 10 wine regions. 2nd task was blind tasting; 4 wines were put in front of you and we had 90 seconds to identify the wines, with country, region, vintage, grape, sub-region, special comments, producer. The last task was to pour a bottle of magnum Champagne into 16 glasses within a total of 5 minutes, and we couldn't return to a glass.
Ketil Sauer, Jakub Filipek and Michael Rønne Sørensen. Photo: DSF
The one with the most points is, as always, the one who makes the least mistakes and has spent the most time on training, reading, tasting, looking at maps, pictures of different wine related stuff etc. This year Jakub Filipek was that guy and earned his victory! I finished 2nd and the new face on stage Michael Rønne Sørensen with a third place.
Congratulations to all and thank you to Danish Sommelier Association for a wonderful day!
