The Competition of the Best Sommelier Europeen 2008 by ASI

ASI Contest The Best Sommelier of Europe    Bulgaria (Sofia)

Isa Bal winner

For the first time since the creation of the competition of the Best Sommelier in Europe, in 1988, the award returns to a professional wearing the colors of Turkey.

It is in Sofia, Bulgaria, that the finale took place and it is there that the Turkish Sommelier who evolves within the three stars English restaurant by the guide Michelin, « The fat duck », picked up this prize.

Thirty candidates then ten at the conclusion of a first selection could claim to it. They were no more than three in the run, then, on the stage of the national Theater Ivan Vasov. And Isa Bal showed himself the most successful during the various tests. He preceded Paolo Basso, the candidate of the Helvetian Confederacy and Eric Zwiebel, the french laureate.

 Pict :

-Isa Bal, an unexpected winner but a real talent.

-Around Serge Dubs, Best Sommelier of the World 1989, Vice-president of the ASI for  the European Continent, the technical committee offered a final without a fault.