Danish Championship 15-05-2023

from Sommelier - Summer 2023

Record of General Assembly 2023:

BY: NINA JENSEN

On May 15th the annual Danish Championship for Sommeliers was held. This year, a classic competition with a high level and an international final taking place in the majestic frames of Axelborg.

09:45. The candidates are gathered for the theory paper. Nervous glances and hope in the low voices. 15 participants – some with the goals of a final, some of passing the bar.

The theory is a questionnaire of 46 questions rooted in classic, universal knowledge followed by the always challenging written blind tasting: 3 wines in 10 minutes and 3 spirits in 3 minutes. A 50% minimum is required to pass – about half of the candidates are here with the hopes of becoming a member, the other half with eyes set on the big prize.

EXAMPLE QUESTIONS:

Which Austrian region was most recently granted DAC and what are the main varietals?

Wagram. Grüner, Roter & Riesling.

State the AVAs of Lake County?

Kelsey Bench, High Valley, Clear Lake, Benmore Valley, Big Valley District, Red Hills, Guenoc Valley.

State four measuring units for the sugar content of the must intended for winemaking?

Brix, Beaume, Oechsle & KMW.

What are the age desginations of Tawny Port with an indication of age?

10 years, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years, 80+ years (VVOP)

After correcting the theory paper, we have 6 strong candidates – 4 of them neck to neck. It will come down to the tasting, who will pass to the final. In the tasting the field becomes more widespread and three clear finalists emerge: Jakub Filipek (Formel B*), Andrea Sala (Geranium***) and Ketil Sauer (Sauer Wine).

Bringing Experience To Stage

The final begins with a task at a table with two guests. The guests have ordered a bottle of champagne as well as a Vesper Martini. The time granted is plentiful: 10 minutes, allowing the sommelier to interact with the guests. Apart from remembering the measurements, the tricky part is the sequence order in this task. The cocktail and the champagne must be served in as close to each other as possible, meaning first, the champagne (Deutz, Brut classic) must be presented, opened and checked, followed by the making of the cocktail and finally the serving of the champagne. All three candidates asks if there are any preferences to the Vesper Martini. Jakub goes with “the classic” recipe and uses correct ingredients but doesn’t enlighten the audience and jury about the measurements, only Ketil Sauer candidate clearly states the correct measurements and deliver a stellar cocktail preparation, while Andrea elaborates most on the Deutz champagne out of all the three, but fails on prepearing the Vesper Martini with correct ingredients. Next task is serving and decanting a (fake) bottle Château Margaux 1982. As the candidate assumes the decanting, he is informed that the guests would actually like also to order the white wine of the Château. Here there are many points to obtain by knowing the name (Pavillon Blanc), the grapes and suggest a vintage. Only Andrea can in the high-pressure environment recall the name, while both Ketil and Jakub somewhat struggles. Andreas service was smooth and supremely elegant, but neither him, nor Jakub finishes in the given time of 6 minutes – Ketil just manages. All three maintain the calm and professionalism well. It looks like a close run so far.

Signature Menu The Candidates Were To Match Wine With

Oysters “Perle Blanche” with pickled Cucumber, horseradish & caviar

Black Danish lobster cooked a la nage

Line caught cod fish, white asparagus & sauce hollandaise with pickled white truffles

Braised whole celeriac, roasted bone marrow, Swedish löjrom, thyme & sauce made on oxidized Puligny-Montrachet.

Turbot cooked over fire, Danish peas with home smoked bacon & a rich fish fumé

Glaced local beef, confit porcini mushrooms & foie gras mousseline

Crepes Suzette, ice-cream with bourbon vanilla & sauce cent cinquantenaire

The next task is one of my favorite: Pairing food and wine. Here the sommelier can really get to show some personality and most closely resemble what he/she does in on a daily basis. Here the method is first to analyze what the main traits of each dish are, explain what you then need from w beverage and finally suggest a specific wine – something infinitely harder than it sounds when the spotlight is on you.

The menu is long with mainly white wine friendly foods. Not much trickery but the ingredients are luxurious, and the candidate is told that the guests are out celebrating on a business dinner. That calls for a lavish pairing with emphasis on the great classics. The only thing the candidate cannot do is use the same vintage, country or grape twice. If they do, it is punished hard – something Jakub suffers from as he lines up a beautiful night with excellent suggestions but breaks the requirement multiple times. Ketil chooses a powerful Cantena Zapata 2016 red to a dish with bonemarrow but also lumpfishroe and then returns to a lighter white afterwards, which somewhat breaks the flow of the menu, while Andrea brings a sol - id performance only lacking some in the prestige in certain of the chosen wines.

The last task they are doing individually is blind tasting. Jakub hits the white wine almost spot on only missing the vintage of the 2010 Moelleux Vouvray, Andrea also goes Vouvray but Sec while Ketil lands in Germany with a 2008 Riesling Spätlese. The red is trickier: A 2021 Vajra Barbera. While the guesses span from Pinot Noir to Southern Rhône to Mencia the three descriptions have many similarities. Jakub and Andrea demonstrate great flow and vocabulary during the tasting with precise timing, Andrea scoring only slightly more points in it that Jakub, while Ketil, after delivering the strongest tasting in the quarterfinals, is now lacking substantially behind the two in the grid.

After a short break, the last part of the final commerce: The classic picture-recognition game followed by pouring of a magnum into 20 equal glasses. During the picture game 3 points is awarded per correct answer. It can change things if the run is tight. Jakub emerges the clear winner of that task scoring 27 points while Ketil scores 18 and Andrea 15, tightening the race. In pouring the magnum, the candidate must still treat the bottle respectfully and with elegance. Pouring the 20 glasses equally having nothing left in the bottle is not an easy feat. The candidates are almost even in this task with 5-7 glasses not approved from each candidate.

AND THE WINNER IS…

In the jury room the points are being counted. It has been years since the level has been this high in the final. The three candidates have all been more than worthy of the spotlight on the stage – clearly none of them are novices: Jakub won the Polish Championship in 2022, Ketil the Danish in 2022 and Andrea got reached the final last time he participated in the Danish Championship in 2021. Following the pattern from the quarterfinals each of the candidates hold the places they had going into the final, despite the points being reset: After counting together all of the disciplines, there is 10-20 points separating each of the candidates and a jury in unison.

Andrea Sala emerges as the winner, Ketil Sauer takes the silver while Jakub gets the bronze.

Congratulations to all three and to our new members of the Danish Association. A warm thanks to all the Sponsors as well as the Board of the Danish Association enabling the inspiring day.