NZ Sommeliers September Newsletter

NZ Sommeliers September Newsletter

It’s been a busy month for wine professionals. Congratulations to Suraj GC, New Zealand Sommelier of the Year 2025 and the recently announced 100 Top ranking sommeliers, and also the teams who competed in the National Blind Wine Tasting Competition. There is a lot of positivity especially with Spring around the corner.

Congratulations to Cameron Douglas and the Sommelier Edit team for putting together New Zealand list of wine professionals which serves to recognition to people around the country who have worked for a very long time, often as restaurant managers compiling wine list or business owners themselves. This list does serve to shine the light on people who have invested in long-term career trajectories in hospitality. Special Congratulations to Leah Kirkland, of Josh Emett Group, ranked No1 on the List.

Please look at these photos from the recent event at the Park Hyatt Hotel.

In September, Suraj and I will go to Malaysia where he will compete at the ASI Asia Pacific Best Sommelier Competition. Since the formation of our association, we have attended 4 competitions: Hong Kong, Japan, Japan again (2022) and now Kuala Lumpur. Over the last 2 competitions, we have been very fortunate to have both Andrea Martinisi and Marek Przyborek compete. They have done very well at these competitions and helped stimulate the belief that New Zealand based Sommeliers could perform at such a high-level.

Court of Master Sommeliers in Auckland

We have Franck Moreau MS returning to Auckland for the Introductory and Certified Exam exams and on Tuesday 23rd September we will host the Graduation Drinks  We welcome you to attend this event which will have canapés prepared by the students of the New Zealand School of Food and Wine. Register here.

NZ Wine NZQA Micro-Credential

I will be running an ONLINE New Zealand Wine NZQA micro-credential where we send you the wines to taste – over 4 nights from 5pm. This could be useful if you have new team members joining for the season, who are not familiar with NZ Wine regions or producers.

Pomerol Tasting

In October 13th, we welcome Katharine Maude with her guest, Alice Rey from JP Mouiex for Pomerol Tutorial at the earlier time of 3pm.

We are also looking for a wine sponsor for Travel By Glass on Monday 1st December. This event with coincide with our Christmas Drinks. Please email me if you are interested.

With best wishes, Celia Hay