The Academy of Food & Wine Service (AFWS) would like to offer its congratulations to Eric Zwiebel, sommelier at Summer Lodge, Dorset, who came an impressive 4th in the Association de la Sommelerie International (ASI) Best Sommelier of the World competition in Tokyo last week.
There was tough competition, and Eric narrowly missed a place in the final three, but made it through to the final 12 sommeliers out of 53 entries along with Isa Bal of the Fat Duck, who was competing for his native Turkey.
Eric was selected to compete for the UK by winning an AFWS selection competition. He was eligible to contest the place by being a former UK Sommelier of the Year, the annual competition organised by the Academy.
Former World title holder Gerard Basset was on the judging panel and praised Eric for his achievement. The winner of the contest was Paolo Basso of Switzerland, with Veronique Rivest of Canada and Aristide Spies from Belgium named as runners-up. The World competition is held every three years.
The semi final and final of this year’s Moët UK Sommelier of the Year competition will be held in London on 28 May.
Read the report by Big Hospitality here.
