A team of Zimbabwean sommeliers defeated their South African counterparts to win the first Stellenbosch Wine Route Sommelier Trophy.
Image from: Internet
The competition was held on December 7 at Lanzeric Winery in the Cape Town wine region.
The competition between the two neighboring countries was organized by Jean Vincent Ridon of the Sommelier Institute, after many sommelier competitions around the world had to be cancelled due to the New Crown pneumonia outbreak.
In addition, Zimbabwe"s newly formed sommelier association needs to select the finalists to represent the country in any competition scheduled for next year.
After attracting 18 finalists to register, the Zimbabwean team reduced them to three; Tawanda Marume, Joseph Dhfana and Job Jovo will be competing for the Stellenbosch Wine Route Sommelier Trophy and Marume has also been selected to represent Zimbabwe at the ASI Best Sommelier Europe and Africa competition in November 2021.
The trio went head-to-head with a South African team consisting of Laurie Cooper, Tayla Kirschner and LeRoi van der Vyver.
Although Laurie Cooper was the winner of this year's Best Young Sommelier title in South Africa, scoring the highest individual score among the six finalists, the Zimbabwean team won the title overall.
