International
Lise Périssat wins the Ruinart Sommelier Challenge 2024
On Monday May 13, 2024, Maison Ruinart held its annual "Sommelier Challenge" competition at the Plaza Athénée hotel. Nineteen sommeliers from all over France faced an intense challenge.
It's 10 a.m. and the tasting room is quiet and calm. The 19 candidates wait patiently for their test to begin. Once underway, for the next 40 minutes, only the sound of their mouths can be heard in the room. Their objective: to taste four sparkling wines in order to answer a grid of seven questions on which the sommeliers will be judged.
The jury included 2023 winner Ségolène Hasselvander, Denis Vernau, head sommelier at Mère Brazier (3 toques) in Lyon, Florence Boubée-Legrand and Alexis Goujard (member of the Revue du Vin de France tasting committee).
A well-known competition winner
For the first time this year, the competition moved from Cheval Blanc Paris to the Plaza Athénée. The participants, aged from 19 to 42, saw victory slip through the hands of a familiar face from the "Ruinart Sommelier Challenge" competition. Indeed, the 2024 winner was Lise Périssat, 1ʳᵉ sommelier at L'Ostau de Baumanière (4 toques).
This was not the winner's first time, as last year she had already taken part in the competition and finished 3ᵉ. This year's podium is completed by Dimitri Nalin, assistant sommelier manager at La Réserve Paris (4 toques), who came in 2ᵉ and finally Maeva Miguel, sommelier at L'Axel (3 toques) in Fontainebleau.
A surprising selection
In the 2023 edition, the four wines tasted were all champagne wines. This year, however, the competition pulled out all the stops. None of the four wines tasted were champagnes, creating general astonishment when the selection was announced after the event. The candidates faced a Spanish Gramona, an Italian Prosecco, a Loire wine and an Auxerrois.
Once the competition was over, participants were invited to attend a masterclass on effervescence. The masterclass, which took place in a relaxed post-competition atmosphere, focused on a broad explanation of the effervescent phenomenon. It scientifically demonstrated the structuring of wines, their design and the optimization of their service.
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