Sommelier-SM at Sergel Hub
On April 3rd, the Swedish Sommelier *Championship was held at Sergel Hub and in the jury of 7 sat our star sommelier Janni Berndt Dahl from Spesso and the wine enthusiast and restaurateur Karl Ljung from L’Avventura.
The prestigious Swedish Sommelier championship can open many doors for the winner, but to win the competition you must complete three stressful tasks. The competition begins with a service, like they were working as a waiter/waitress at a restaurant. There are three tables with three groups of people. The first table order a pre-cocktail, the second ordered a suitable choice of wine that would be complementary for their food and the third and last table needed help with their wine. Because they had earlier been served a wine where the waiter forgot to present it and is now in a carafe on the table and they are wondering what wine they are drinking.
The second task is a blind test where a video is presented on a screen with a producer from a vineyard that wishes a dessert wine but not for dessert, for her dinner. This is followed by three wine glasses with dessert wines and each of them is going to be paired with a suitable dish. The dish is only described by the producer with a flavor, “high acidity” and then the contestant is going to present the dessert wine and explain what types of dishes it will work well with that has high acidity in it.
The third and last task is a theory test, where the participant must answer as many questions as possible on a limited time.
The competition is live-streamed and during the breaks, a presenter entertains the crowd together with various people who are being interviewed, like previous contestant etc. There are also a few wine exhibitors in the venue who present new wines for the season.
It was a great day and this is a fantastic event that we are proud to represent in our house.
We had a chat with Janni and Karl about the competition, read the interview here!