The first heats are beginning for the selection of finalists for the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup – one of the world's biggest amateur wine tasting competitions.
The LBBC final 2011
This year for the first time Decanter is sponsoring the competition, which is now in its 11th and biggest year.
So far 39 teams have entered. They will compete for a place in the last eight, and for the chance to take part in the final at Chateau Lafite, whose owner Baron Eric de Rothschild is the chairman of the competition.
The finalists will consist of two teams each from the United States, Asia, France and the rest of Europe, and will be drawn from eight US teams 15 from France, 12 from Asia, and four from Europe, Spain, Great Britain and Belgium.
Teams face a series of tasks, from multiple choice questions to blind tastings in which they must correctly place wines in age order in the correct chateau, specify appellation, vintage and property, and comment on and identify different wines.
The final will be held at Lafite in the summer, with the exact date to be announced, according to the competition’s organiser, the Commanderie du Bontemps de Médoc, Graves, Sauternes et Barsac.
Competing teams come from a wide variety of different business schools and universities, including Centrale, Dauphine, EDHEC Lille, ENS Lyon, ENS Paris in France, Oxford and Cambridge Universities, Columbia Law School, University of Pennsylvania, Wharton and Harvard Business School in the United States, NTU Singapore, and Sun Yat Sen Canton and Jiaotong Shanghai.
The winners in 2011 were the teams from Harvard Business School in first place, followed by the Chinese University, Hong Kong, with the Nyenrode Business Universiteit, Netherlands, tying with Wharton School for third place.
Entries are particularly welcomed from UK schools and colleges.
Please contact Emmanuelle Ponsan Dantin by 15 February 2012 for an entry pack
Written by Decanter.com staff
