TROPHÉE RUINART - BEST SOMMELIER IN EUROPE IS NORWEGIAN ROBERT LIE. ITALIAN ALESSANDRO MASI MAKES IT TO FINALS

The twenty-five-year-old Norwegian sommelier of the Relais Gourmand Bagatelle in Oslo, Robert Lie, is the new European champion of the Sommelliere competition. The title was awarded on June 18 in Paris during the 10th edition of the Trophée Ruinart, the prestigious international competition reserved for talented professional sommelier from all over Europe.
The spectacular competition included 35 candidates from almost as many different countries who first met at the semifinals held at Reims, in the Maison Ruinart, the oldest existing champagne house, which since 1988, has hosted the Trophée in collaboration with ASI (Association de la Sommellerie Internazionale). Italian challenger, twenty-three-year-old sommelier at Daniel’s in New York, Alessandro Masi, placed well within the top twelve semifinalists. The location of the spectacular "mise en scène" of the final competition was the exceptional Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, a theatre situated on the Avenue Montagne, in one of the most fascinating areas of Ville lumiere, home to an exclusive microcosm populated by actors, artists, and musicians.
At the final stage of the competition, which was subdivided into various trials (blind taste tests of wines and distilled liquors, correcting incorrect wine lists, combining wines with gastronomic proposals, and a test in serving capabilities), the Norwegian challenger beat out the other two potential victors, Frenchman Eric Zwiebel and Roberto Basso from the Canton Ticino.
The Trophée Ruinart award to the best sommelier in Europe reconfirms the Maison Ruinart’s commitment to promoting the art of sommellerie, a profession that must credit its evolution to the competitivity and the spirit of emulation among colleagues generated by this highly selective competition that favors the exchange of privileges and the diffusion and consciousness of the sommelier profession.
An interesting side note, Claude Brasseur, the celebrated French actor and protagonist of the film “Fauteuils d'orchestre” (currently playing in theatres and which also takes place in large part at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées), participated in the award ceremony together with Asi president, Kostas Touloumtzis, ASI director, Giuseppe Vaccarini and president of the Maison Ruinart, Bernard Peillon.