Canadian Association of Professional Sommeliers Ontario Chapter

 A young Canadian sommelier from restaurant Le Local in Montreal won the APAS & ASI Contest of the Best Sommelier of the Americas 2009 in front of an audience of wine lovers in the hotel Panamericano in Buenos Aires. Second was her compatriot Véronique Rivest, third, the Brasilean Guilherme Corrêa.

For the Argentinian Sommeliers Association and his president Andrés Rosberg it was a real challenge to organize for the first time on the American continent this international ASI, Association de la Sommellerie Internationale, and APAS, Alianza Pan Americana de Sommeliers contest , inviting many countries to select and send their best sommeliers (maximum two) to Buenos Aires. A great success indeed.

The semi-final including written and practical tests allowed, on Sunday May 31st, select three finalists among the fifteen candidates representing eight countries : Agustina de Alba and Marcelo Rebolé, Argentina, Guilherme Corrêa and Tiago Locatelli, Brazil, Elyse Lambert and Véronique Rivest, Canada, Ricardo Grellet Almerighi and Hector Riquelme, Chile, Juan Carlos Flores Mazon and Marcos Flores Tlalpan for Mexico, Juan Pablo Figueroa Crisologo and Victor Kompanichenko for Peru, Fernando Beteta, USA, Malvy Medina Castillo and Marilis Susana Sanchez Orro for Venezuela.  In the huge Panamericano room, some five hundred persons, including Argentinian and foreign journalists, attended the great final. The title of Best Sommelier of the Americas 2009 would be won by Brazil or Canada on June 1st. The candidates had to face practical and oral tests against the clock and in a foreign language : serving a sparkling wine, taking an order advising the best pairing of food and wines, decanting and serving a red wine, tasting blind three wines and identifying five spirits, and then correcting errors on a wine list. Andrés Rosberg, president of AAS, noted the high level of the final together with Gerard Basset, MS, MW, Best Sommelier of Europe 1996, vice world champion and guest star of this contest, Michèle Chantôme, director of the ASI Technical Commission and Danio Braga, president of APAS and vice-president of ASI for the American continent.

"I can’t realize I am the Best Sommelier of the Americas" was still saying Elyse, deeply moved, a few hours after her victory. Her next goal will be the ASI Contest of the Best Sommelier of the World, with Moët & Chandon, that will take place in Santiago de Chile in April 2010. Thanks to her continental title she will directly represent her country with another Canadian candidate the association is allowed to select. A privilege shared also by Turkey whose candidate, Isa Bal, became Best Sommelier of Europe 2008, and the country of the winner of the next ASI Contest of the Best Sommelier of Asia-Oceania in Osaka, the next month of November.

In accordance with the Rules of the ASI contests, the members of the Technical Commission chaired by Shinya Tasaki, Best Sommelier of the World 1995 and ASI vice-president for Asia Oceania and directed by Michèle Chantôme, Serge Dubs, Best Sommelier of Europe 1988, Best Sommelier of the World 1989 and ASI vice-president for Europe, Danio Braga, APAS president and ASI vice president for the Americas, had prepared the tests for the competition helped by Catherine Doré and Paul Brunet, and, for the logistics, by Fernanda Orellano, Technical Director of the AAS. From Japan, Yumiko Ueno, assistant to the ASI president Kazuyoshi Kogai, was in charge of the coordination.