Wine Australia’s ‘Somms of the World’ launched

More than 650 Australian wines were showcased to a group of 50 sommeliers from some of the world’s best restaurants and bars when they visited Australia last week as part of Wine Australia’s ‘Somms of the World’ programme, coinciding with The World’s 50 Best Restaurants 2017.

Hailing from the UK, US, Thailand, Japan, Spain, China, Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, the leading sommeliers were invited by Wine Australia to get to know the country’s wine regions, experience the breadth and diversity of Australian wine and meet their winemakers.

This is the first time a wine programme has been run in conjunction with The World’s 50 Best Restaurants event program, which hosts the world’s best chefs. Wine Australia, the official wine partner of The World’s 50 Best Restaurants, provided all the wines for the program of events and used the opportunity to create the ‘Somms of the World’ satellite programme to shine a light on Australia’s renowned wine and food offering, the organisation said.

Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia said, “Experiencing the regions, the culture and building a connection with winemakers is so important for sommeliers who are selling the stories behind the wine in their restaurants.

“We have received fantastic feedback from the sommeliers already, with many saying they’ve never had so much exposure to so many different wines and regions on a visit. We hope this converts to a greater presence and more diversity of Australian wine in their restaurants.”

Fahara Zamorano, sommelier at LA-based Curtis Stone’s restaurant, Gwen, said: “It’s exhilarating what’s going on here in Australia, it’s like a renaissance that’s happening right now; it’s inspiring.”