Raimonds TOMSONS wins the title
The Latvian, Best Sommelier of Europe in 2017, finalist of the last Best Sommelier of the World competition in Antwerp in 2019, he finally won the world title after 5 days of competitions.
Another representative from northern Europe, Denmark’s Nina Jensen became the vice-champion of this triennial competition. China’s Reeze Choi finished third.
France’s Pascaline Lepeltier, fourth, finished at the foot of the podium. The final trio will face each other in a few moments in the final rounds, in public. The name of the winner will be announced at the end of the afternoon.
Eric Zwiebel (United Kingdom), Alsatian of the event, was eliminated in the selections for the semi-final.
This final, which was held in public in front of 4,000 spectators at the Paris La Défense Arena, broadcast live from YouTube, proved spectacular, with several service tests, blind tastings, and wine culture quizzes that pushed the three finalist candidates to their limits. The three finalists followed one another for more than four hours on stage to complete several events.
Each event was punctuated by unforeseen events such as a bottle that was not at temperature or the impromptu arrival of guests at a table. The three finalists then had four minutes to identify four white wines, then one minute to connect two types of rocks to two wines they had just tasted. During another round, chef Anne-Sophie Pic proposed to the candidates to match the four wines they had just tasted with four dishes à la carte from her restaurant in Valence. The finalists had to analyze a wine list to identify errors – on the price of a bottle, the vintage or its origin – then the sommeliers had to taste and find the vintage of three wines. Finally, the three finalists had to identify five wines from a series of images.
The correct answers were not revealed until after the final and everyone, including jurors, acknowledged that it was an almost impossible mission. “I’m very glad I didn’t have to do that,” said Sweden’s Andreas Larsson, the world’s best sommelier in 2007 and a member of this year’s jury.
Raimonds Tomsons
Best Sommelier of the World 2023.
The great sommeliers are no longer exclusively in France, after Northern Europe and especially Sweden, it is towards the countries of the East that the passion for wine gives birth to the great sommeliers of tomorrow.
Very happy, Raimonds Tomsons said that he owes this victory to “a lot of personal work, the support of a team and the advice of the Best Sommelier of the World 2007, the Swede Andreas Larsson”.
The young sommelier has made a flawless journey, already revealed in Argentina where he invited himself to the semi-finals of the world championship in his first appearance on the international scene, he is head sommelier of the restaurant Vincents, in Riga, Latvia.
At the 2017 Best Sommelier of Europe competition in Vienna he dominated the Final, which took place in five stages during a gala dinner. So even if the other three finalists Julia Scavo for Romania, David Biraud for France, and Piotr Pietras for Poland, defended their position well, Raimonds Tomsons showed talent and an exceptional level of knowledge above the lot.
So he created his dream in Paris in 2023.
Pascaline Lepeltier
4th in the ranking for his first participation.
Master Sommelier in 2014, one of the few women in the world holding the diploma. Trained at the school of great gastronomy at the Auberge Bretonne (**) with chef Jacques THOREL, she quickly developed starred wine lists in Belgium and the USA mainly based on natural wines or from dynamic bion.
She apprenticed the art of sommellerie as an intern at the George V under the direction of the Best Sommelier of Europe and Vice-Best Sommelier of the World Eric BEAUMARD.
Sommelier competitions arrived quickly, with the titles of Best Student Sommelier of the Loire Valley and Best Young Sommelier of Brittany awarded in 2006, then three finals of the Best Sommelier of France (2008, 2010, 2012). In 2009, promoted to beverage director of Rouge Tomato New York, she moved to Manhattan.
In 2017 the prestigious magazine The World of Fine Wine awarded Rouge Tomato the prize for Best Wine List in the World.
In 2018, she became M.O.F. Sommelerie and Meilleur Sommelier de France!
She has written for numerous publications including The World of Fine Wine and Wine & Spirits. Since May 2019, she has held a monthly column in La Revue du Vin de France, “Vu d’Ailleurs”.
image: ©F. Ermine
Since 1969…
The list of the best sommeliers in the world has 13 names. Since 1969, the ASI (Association of International Sommellerie), which lists 50,000 professional sommeliers in 46 countries, organizes the Best Sommelier of the World Competition. It takes place every three years in one of the 46 member countries of the ISA. These last competitions attracted more than 1000 candidates. They must imperatively work in catering, wine-bars, wine libraries, or in the “oenogastronomic” industry.
In 2023, the Best Sommelier of the World competition was held for the second time in France. Only six French sommeliers have reached the Holy Grail, and the last of them was Olivier Poussier, winner of the competition in 2000 in Montreal.
2023 Raimonds Tomsons – Latvia
2019 Marc Almert – Germany
2016 Jon Arvid Rosengren – Sweden
2012 Paolo Basso – Switzerland
2010 Gérard Basset – United Kingdom
2007 Andreas Larsson – Sweden
2004 Enrico Bernardo – Italy
2000 Olivier Poussier – France
1998 Markus Del Monego – Germany
1995 Shinya Tasaki – Japan
1992 Philippe Faure-Brac – France
1989 Serge Dubs – France
1986 Jean-Claude Jambon – France
1983 Jean-Luc Pouteau – France
1978 Guiseppe Vaccarini – Italy
1971 Pietro Sattanino – Italy
1969 Armand Melkonian – France
Association de la Sommelerie Internationale
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