2023 UK Ruinart Sommelier Challenge open for entries

By James Bayley

Published: 23 January, 2023

The 2023 UK Ruinart Sommelier Challenge is officially open for entries, with an all-expenses paid trip to Champagne on the line.

This year’s UK seminar and blind tasting competition will take place on 20 February at The Conduit, in central London. The aim of the day is twofold: to explore some of the more technical aspects of the art of winemaking and to choose the winning sommelier who will attend the all-expenses paid trip to Champagne later this year.

The top 25 candidates will compete in a blind-tasting competition at The Conduit in central London on 20 February 2023. The winner of the tasting will be awarded a place on a comprehensive four-day educational trip, hosted by Ruinart Chef de Caves Frédéric Panaïotis.

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The candidates are selected by judges Frédéric Panaïotis, Ronan Sayburn MS, and 2022 Challenge winner Mark Ron Patana. The winning UK representative will join the trip alongside winners from each edition, which is being run across 15 countries worldwide.

Commenting on his experience, 2022 winner Mark Ron Patana said, "I truly enjoyed participating in the Ruinart Sommelier Challenge! Forty minutes, just you, four amazing wines, and a tasting paper. You could have felt the intensity, the race against time, the adrenaline and passion of the people competing in that room. I decided to put everything I am, as a sommelier and as a person, the encounters I have experienced and the memories I have shared into those words, and felt extremely satisfied, knowing I had given everything I could. Thank you for making this event possible."

With the 5 February 2023 deadline fast approaching entrants are encouraged to sign up here.

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