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Just 10 years before he was crowned the world's best sommelier after winning a rigorous global competition against dozens of elite beverage connoisseurs, Marc Almert thought wine «stank.» «Both (my parents) always tried to motivate me to tasWorld's best sommelier used to think wine 'stank and didn't taste nice'
Just 10 years before he was crowned the world's best sommelier after winning a rigorous global competition against dozens of elite beverage connoisseurs, Marc Almert thought wine «stank.» «Both (my parents) always tried to motivate me to taste the wines at home when I was coming of age -- so 16, 17 -- and I always refused,» said Almert, the slight, genteel sommelier at the two-Michelin-starred Pavillon restaurant in Zurich's ultra-luxe Baur au Lac hotel. «To me (wine) stank and it didn't taste nice and I didn't want to drink anything at the parties with school friends. People were having beer and spirits and I thought it was disgusting... That was my honest opinion,» he told AFP. In March, the 27-year-old won the title awarded by the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI) after a multi-round competition involving national and regional qualifiers that tests knowledge, tasting and service of all beverages typically served in a restaurant. The contest happens every three years, making Almert -- from Cologne, Germany -- the 16th winner in its five-decade history. That he earned such an honour a decade after finding alcohol broadly repulsive is a testament to both... Read more