Fourth-time lucky for UK Sommelier of Year winner Konetzki

Jan Konetzki of London’s Restaurant Gordon Ramsay has won the 2012 UK Sommelier of the Year – at the fourth time of trying.

Konetzki narrowly beat Clément Robert of London’s Medlar Restaurant, with Laurent Richet of Restaurant Sat Bains in Nottingham coming third.

Konetzki, 31, a judge at the Decanter World Wine Awards and contributor to Decanter has reached the semi-finals of the competition three times previously but said this year he was ‘really up for it’.

‘It was my fourth attempt this year – I tried it the first time when Gearoid (Devaney) won it in 2008. I said to myself, ‘I’m going to try until I manage to do it’ and this year I was really up for it, I really wanted it.’

Despite this, the German-born sommelier (pictured) said he was never confident he would win – especially as he did not complete one task in the allotted time and thought he had made too many errors in the theory exam.

However chairman of judges and technical director of the Academy of Food & Wine Service, Gerard Basset OBE MW MS, said Konetzki’s overall ability, and his tasting skills in particular, saw him edge ahead.

‘It was one of the closest finals for many years,’ said Basset. ‘But Jan completed the tasks with true panache and demonstrated a real talent and considerable knowledge.’

The competition is notorious for its difficulty: the three finalists had to 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, now infamous in the world of sommellerie, involves pouring a magnum of Champagne equally into 16 glasses, without returning to top up any of them.

The semi finals and final of the competition, organised by the AFWS, was this year held for first time at the London International Wine Fair.

It was the first year the competition was sponsored by Moët & Chandon Champagne, which also sponsors the European and World’s Best Sommelier competitions – the latter won in 2010 by Basset, the current reigning champion.

Konetzki won a trophy, trips to Champagne and Chile, jeroboams of Moët & Chandon and Viña Emiliana’s Coyam 2009, and a selection of Riedel glasses.

2012 judging panel:

Gerard Basset (Hotel TerraVina)

Ronan Sayburn MS (Chairman of the UK Wine Guild)

Victoria Moore (Wine Correspondent at the Telegraph)

Joseph Rorke (Moet & Hennessy Account Manager)

Brian Julyan (Court of Master Sommeliers)

UK Sommelier of the Year Hall of Fame:

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 Tina Gellie