Austria’s Markus Winkler of the boutique Alpine hotel Aurelio Lech proved himself a worthy winner of the 2nd edition of the International Young Sommeliers Competition. In the finals of the two-day long event staged in Gdańsk, Poland, he outperformed Kristina Veselova of Saint Petersburg and Jakub Filipek of Szara Gęś restaurant in Kraków. The Russian runner-up didn’t come away empty-handed, however, as he garnered the People’s Choice Championship title.
The contest held in October at the Mercure Gdańsk Stare Miasto hotel featured an international roster of 48 talented contestants all aged under 30. The entrants hailed from Poland, the Czech Republic, Austria, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Serbia, Slovakia, Russia, Germany and Kazakhstan. English was the official language of the event, which was organized by the Polish Sommelier Association.
Several partner events were also offered, including a Spanish competition path in collaboration with Wines from Spain and a seminar on wines of Germany designed by the German Wine Institute.