Sommeliers Competition

The Mexican Sommeliers’ Association invites all professional sommeliers to take part in the 2011 edition its traditional National Sommelier Competition.

LOCATION: Exhibition Hall D, Centro Banamex, Mexico City, as part of Alimentaria México 2011.

ADDRESS: Av. Conscripto nº 311 Col. Lomas de Sotelo, Delegación Miguel Hidalgo.

DATE: Wednesday, 1st June 2011.

HOURS: 8.00 a.m.–7.00 p.m.

Rules

Participants must be professional sommeliers.
You must be an active member of the Mexican Sommeliers’ Association.
Submit a letter of authorization to take part in the 2011 National Sommelier Competition on letterhead stationery, signed by your immediate supervisor or the appropriate person (if you are currently working).
Complete the 2011 National Sommelier Competition registration form (attached) and send it to the following email address by 15 May at the latest, 2.00 p.m. and 4.00–6.00 p.m., Monday–Friday, asociacionsommeliersmexicanos@gmail.com, Attn. Sr. Fernando Sandoval.
On the day of the competition, you must arrive at the entrance to Alimentaria México at 8.15 a.m., with a grace period of no more than 15 minutes.
All participants must be dressed in full uniform as they would to perform their sommelier duties at their place of work.
While the evaluations are being carried out, participants may not leave the area set aside for this purpose. If for any reason they must leave the area for a moment, they must request permission for the competition coordinator.
During the practical evaluation stage, no participant may speak with anybody else, including the audience.

Competition schedule

The competition will be divided into two stages: theoretical and practical.

THEORETICAL

I. 9.00–10.50 a.m.

Participants will respond to set of 100 questions on subjects related to:

Viticulture
Viniculture
Geography of global wine production
Distilled beverages
Cheese
Coffee
Tea
Cigars

II. 11.00–11.30 a.m.

Participants will be given a wine list. They must mark and correct any errors they find, these may include: wine name, wine producer, designation of origin, type of wine, level of quality, vintage and even how the list is arranged.

Each of these two theoretical evaluations will be performed by the competitors at the same time and in the same location.

The total score obtained by each competitor for these two evaluations will be used to select the three participants with the highest score for this stage of the competition. They will advance to the next stage.

PRACTICAL

I. 12.30–1.30 p.m.

The jury will select six different alcoholic beverages. Each of the participants will describe these verbally to the judges in terms of nose, colour, variety of grape, origin and vintage for wines, or raw material, type of beverage, origin and category or level of quality for distilled beverages.

Each participant will have a maximum of five minutes.

II. 2.00–4.00 p.m.

There will be a wine service test, with each participant serving a group of presumed diners, based on the food menu provided. They must consider the different types of wine available in the service area at the time in order to make suggestions to each diner.

They will perform the wine service for the diners at the table as normal.

The panel of judges will be made up of a group of wine and gastronomy experts.

The panel will give an individual score for each section of the practical stage.

This score for each section will be submitted to the head judge, who will be chosen at the start of the practical stage by consensus of the judges.

The points obtained for each stage (theoretical and practical) will be totalled.

Each test will be assigned a different value, but the sum total of these must equal 100 points. (The value of each test is yet to be determined.)

In the case of a tie, the judges will deliberate to choose the winner. If no consensus is reached, the winner will be determined by simple majority vote.

The winner of the 2011 National Sommelier Competition will be announced by the chairman of the Mexican Sommeliers’ Association at the closing ceremony for Alimentaria México 2011.