Cornell win SPIT tasting for first time

Cornell University has claimed its first victory at the Sciences Po International Tasting (SPIT), defeating 11 other teams from other top universities.

Held at Champagne Bollinger earlier this month, the blind tasting saw 12 university teams from France, the UK, US, Switzerland and China go head to head over three rounds, each of four wines.

The French universities were: EM Lyon (last year’s champions), Ecole Normale Supérieure (ENS), ASSAS, ESSEC and Agro ParisTech, while the ‘foreign’ universities were: Oxford and Saint Andrews from the UK; Cornell from the US; the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Ecole Hôtelière de Lausanne and Polytehnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The three flights covered Champagnes, red wines and sweet wines and the teams were also asked several questions linked to the tasting and on the culture of wine in general.

A few questions asked for example were, ‘how many bubbles are there on average in a glass of Champagne?’ and ‘Which lieu-dit in Alsace was the first to made a grand cru?’

After a “close” contest, Cornell were judged to be the winners, with ESSEC in second place, EM Lyon in third and Oxford in fourth.