French business schools through to Left Bank Bordeaux Cup final

Two teams of students from French business schools have beaten off stiff competition from 14 other institutions across France to qualify for the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup final next month.

Image credit: Commanderie du Bontemps

Teams from Skema (main picture) and EDHEC (second picture) business schools, both based in the northern city of Lille, came through a tight qualifying event this month.

They narrowly beat teams from Paris-based Ecole Centrale and University Paris-Dauphine.

Sixteen teams in total competed for the right to represent France at this year’s Left Bank Bordeaux Cup (LBBC) final to be held in the cellars of Chateau Lafite Rothschild in June.

The LBBC, sponsored by Decanter and run by the Commanderie du Bontemps for Medoc, Graves, Sauternes and Barsac, allows budding wine experts to pit their wits against each other on all aspects of Bordeaux’s left bank.

Students must answer a series of multiple choice questions before embarking on a series of blind tastings, during which they are asked to pick specific appellations or vintages from a flight of wines.

This year’s heats in France went to the final tasting round before clear winners emerged, the Commanderie said.

For EDHEC, qualification represents another chance to win the competition after its team lost in the 2013 final. The University of Cambridge won the cup last year, but were this knocked out in qualifying in London by arch-rivals Oxford.

There will be eight teams in the final on 25 June, including: Yale University and Stern NYU from the US; the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Nanyang Technological University of Singapore from Asia; the University of Oxford and Copenhagen Business School from [non-French] Europe; and EDHEC and Skema Business School.

Written by Chris Mercer