Philipp Reinstaller wins 2024 UK Sommelier of the Year

Last week, Philipp Reinstaller from Raffles took the title of UK Sommelier of the Year.

It had been a hard fought 2 days of @theiwsc competition. Over 50 applied, day 1 saw 38 quarter-finalists that were whittled down to 6 announced at the start of day 2, then 3 finalists for the final performed on stage in front of 140 of their peers.

It was a series of timed tasks, where the time master judge Vincenzo Arnese no-nonsense ‘TIME’ made for a running joke with the audience to take off the nail-biting tension in the air.

The tasks were:

• Wine List correction

• Blind Tasting including naming vintages, vineyards and producers

• Bar Service

• Food & Wine Pairing

The finalists were also asked to explain the purpose of a Coravin and serve a non-alcoholic drink.

The final culminated with the head to head ‘Champagne Pour, of a magnum bottle of Moët & Chandon Grand Vintage 2023 to 17 glasses in 6 minutes with the aim of getting the same level in every glass, not being able to return to a glass once poured and being penalised for having any champagne in the bottle in the end.

Ultimately Philipp won out, impressing not just the judges but all his peers too.

Congratulations Philipp.

As the new owners of the event, our sincere gratitude go to the IWSC, with whom we formulated the new style and refreshed the competition which was enormously well received. They managed to not only bring together the ambitious event but made it a smooth sailing, competition that everybody enjoyed.

We could then focus on designing the tasks, competition, recruiting the best judges and making sure the competition lived up to its prestigious name.