In March 2013, French Canadian Véronique Rivest became the 2nd best sommelier in the world. The entire country was proud. But how do you get this title? Why is it that in BC, where we have tremendous wine talents, we had no ways to participate, not even at the Canadian level?
The world competition is held through ASI (Association de la Sommellerie Internationale), headquartered in Paris. CAPS (the Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers) is affiliated with ASI. The mandate of the organisation is to raise awareness of the sommelier profession and to promote the culture of wine through instruction, competition, accreditation and events. It also aims to provide a professional forum to encourage community, networking and education for our members.
Until very recently, BC was not part of this association. The CAPS BC chapter was formed last April. Vancouver held the very first competition of this kind in BC on November 3rd, 2014.
Walking into Edible Canada at 9:00 a.m. where the competition was held was moving. The room was filled with 16 top BC sommeliers ready to put their talent on the line. The excitement, the fear, but most importantly the sense of a tight community was palpable. Candidates wrote a 90-minute exam which was a co+F90+F182
