BALKAN SOMMELIER CHALLENGE – CYPRUS VICTORY
The Serbian Sommelier Association once again hosted the 2nd competition for the best sommelier of the Balkans – Balkan Sommelier Challenge. From October 27th to 29th in 2022, Serbia was the place to measure the knowledge and skills of top sommeliers. In the Belgrade Hyatt Regency Hotel, the Serbian Sommelier Association hosted 28 foreign sommelier delegations and seven international judges.
From Cyprus the National Champion Sotiris Neophytidis, a vocational teacher, represented Cyprus with the runner up of the National Contest Iwona Hereda of the Four Seasons Hotel.
Whilst visitors from European countries were hosted to masterclasses on Serbian wines and their indigenous varieties as well as Serbian brandies, as well as wine exhibition over the two days, the young sommeliers were battling it out with the usual scenario of quarter and semifinals.
The process was similar to the European and World ASI contests, were the top candidates advanced from quarterfinals and semifinals, all the way to the finals.
All the candidates went through high-level written tastings, and service tasks aimed at putting them in professional situations to assess their skills and abilities. A high level of knowledge was required. Knowledge is the hardware, but human interaction is the software,” stated Andreas Larsson, in 2007 the first Best Sommelier of the World from Scandinavia. Thus, service tasks were tailored to test the candidates’ service acumen, quick reaction skills, and capability to act under stressful conditions.
The competition is getting tougher year by year, as the wine world is expanding. And it is not only wine and food-matching that the candidates need to master, but also beer, spirits, and non-alcoholic beverages—basically anything that can be consumed in a restaurant. This is why this contest was so important to prepare candidates for the greater stage in the World Contest in February 2023 Paris.
With the competition always including tricky and surprising sections, mental preparation is the key. The 9 finalists were announced and much to our delights both Sotiris and Iwona were taking part in the semis. They were again put to some very hard tests; this time live on stage. We had to wait until the next day live on stage again to find out who will be the three finalists.
The show started with all 28 candidates marching onto the stage. The semifinalists remained on stage, and the jury called out the names of the semifinalists who didn’t make it to the final. The excitement was palpable, when there were four candidates left on stage, Iwona names was called out already but not Sotiris.
But it was time to celebrate the finalists—Sotiris was the first Cypriot to compete on a final. The trio went on to carry out several tasks on stage, which was decorated to resemble a restaurant. And the guests that they had to serve were quite something, all known international Sommeliers.
The fiercely competitive Sotiris Neophytidis took the trophy to Cyprus as the first-ever winner from Cyprus. “I hope this victory will encourage young people in Cyprus and other countries maybe, not so famous for wine”, the new Baltic Challenge champion stated.
For Sotiris himself, the dream of the title was born years ago, when he saw several Somms both international and in Cyprus winning top trophies. We congratulate Sotiris Neophytidis and the best of lack in the world contest.
