Clement Robert wins Moet UK Sommelier of the Year

Clement Robert of London's Medlar Restaurant has won the 2013 Moet UK Sommelier of the Year competition.

Robert beat Tobias Brauweiler of The Ritz, London who came in second place with Kathrine Larson of Zuma, London finishing in third, at the final of the competition held last night at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Knightsbridge

Robert who has entered for the past five years, and finished runner-up last year to Jan Konetzki of Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, said he was ‘ready to win this year’.

‘I’ve been entering this competition for the past five years, since the age of 22, and I’ve been preparing for this day for the past five months. I really wanted to eventually win it so I prepared extremely hard.

‘With a huge sense of pride obviously I will try to honour my new title that I’ve got on the top of my head, I hope it’s not too heavy for me, but I will definitely do my best’.

Chief judge Gerard Basset MS MW praised all three finalists but said the result in the end was ‘good and fair’.

‘Clement was brilliant all day, from early in the morning he was very good and on stage he did a great performance. He was very consistent and absolutely perfect. A worthy winner.’

Basset said Brauweiler ‘very good’ but ‘didn’t quite have the same control of the stage’ and Larson was ‘charming’ but was ‘less consistent’.

Larson did however win this year’s Young Sommelier of the Year, which is awarded to the youngest sommelier who reaches the furthest in the competition.

Speaking to Decanter.com she said: ‘It was a really good day, there was strong competition in both Clement and Tobias but it was amazing. I will definitely be back next year and be much stronger’.

Looking ahead to next year Basset is positive about the future talent of sommelier: ‘We have some young people who are coming up which I think will make a very interesting competition next year. It looks very promising for the young talent’.

The competition saw 15 competitiors go through a series of tasks including a theory paper, knowledge questionnaire, a series of quick-fire questions and a service skills tast.

The three finalsits then had to identify and correct errors on a wine list, blind-taste a number of wines and spirits and, in a restaurant scenario, demonstrate their serving skills and food- and wine-matching abilities – all in front of an audience of their peers and previous winners of the competition.

The final task involved pouring a magnum of Champagne equally into 16 glasses, without returning to top up any of them.

On winning, Robert received a Riedel Tyrol Decanter, a collection of Riedel Vinum glasses, a Magnum of 2009 Domaine Boutinot ‘la Cote Sauvage’ Cairanne and a Jeroboam of Moet and Chandon NV.

See the pictures from the final of the 2013 Moet UK Sommelier of the Year competition

UK Sommelier of the Year Past Winners:

2012: Jan Konetzki

2011: Yohann Josselin

2010: Christopher Delalonde

2009: Laura Rhys

2008: Gearoid Devaney

2007: Nicolas Clerc

2006: Claire Thevenot

2005: Matthew Wilkin

2004: Eric Zweibel

2003: Loic Maillet

2002: Xavier Rousset

2001: James Payne

2000: Matthieu Longuere

1999: Alan Holmes

1998: Ronan Sayburn

1997: Vincent Gasnier

1996: Franck Massard

1995: Henri Chapon

1994: Mark Walter

1993: Nicholas Mobbs

1992: Gerard Basset

1991: Michael Simms

1990: John Walker

1989: Gerard Basset

1988: Stephen Wilcock

1987: Simon Hopkinson

1986: Michael Varney (deceased)

1985: David Hair

1984: Michael Simms

1983: Bryan Dawes

1982: Charles Piggin

1981: Claudia Harris

1980: June Schmidt-Lowe

Written by Georgina Hindle