Wine and Spirit Sommelier Challenge Semi Final Round two

Well the results are in for round two and I placed fourth equal. It seems I had a bad round two, placing fifth out of five, scuppering my chances. I havent read it yet, so once I have, I'll disect it a bit more. But Im still chuffed that I got through to the semi's, and there's always next year.

Wine and Spirit Sommelier Challenge

Junes edition of Wine and Spirit magazine features the first round of the semi-final of the Sommelier Challenge. The challenge was the first of two dishes that we had to submit wines for, and it was probably the more challenging of the two. A seared tuna with peppers, olives and tomatoes. I chose to pair the dish with Bonny Doons Clos de Gilroy, a beaujolais style wine made from Grenache. Lovely purple fruity flavours - cherry and raspberry, with a touch of white pepper on the finish. Surprisingly I was the only candidate to chose a red wine, all the others going with a wide array of whites. For the first round Ive placed third, which Im quite happy about. The second round dish will be featured next month, and the top two scoring candidates go forward to compete in the final. Cant wait till next month to find out how Ive done.

Busy, busy busy bees

Apologies for the lack of posts recently but Ive been tied up with the year end stocktake, then the last two days have been spent as a troglodyte in the cellar, moving hundreds of bottles from A to B and back to A again.

Our new racking was fitted this morning, and Ive spent the last six and a half hours racking up the wines. Im less than a third of the way through, my arms and hands are covered in skelfs, my shoulders ache from lifting cases of wine, my back aches from stooping down to avoid twatting my head on the low ceiling down in the keg room. My body aches from more physical exertion in one day that Ive had for most of the year!! Im heading home now for a hot bath and an early night, ready to finish the job off tomorrow. Once all the wines are racked, the next task is to list all the new wines on the wine-list and enter them into our EPOS system. I get the first task, Andre gets the second. I think ive got the better end of the deal there!!

Im sick of looking at Puligny Montrachet and Chassagne Montrachet, but Im sure they will sell well. Although I had a disturbing nights reading last night, which I will post more about later.

In other news Ive submitted my wine suggestions for the semi-final round of the Sommelier Challenge in Wine and Spirit magazine. They arent sure when my round is going to be published but they think it will be either Junes issue or Julys (out end May and June respectively). Cant wait to see how Ive fared and who I am up against.