Cypriot sommelier competing in international contest

Cypriot sommelier Sotiris Neophytidis will represent the island at the Best Sommelier of World contest in Paris, taking place from Tuesday to Sunday.

The contest is organised by the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale (ASI), which was founded over 50 years ago as an umbrella organisation to raise the bar for restaurant service professionals globally. ASI is currently represented in six different continents.

Over the years, Neophytidis has worked as a sommelier at different hotel restaurants in Limassol, namely the Parklane Hotel, the Four Seasons Hotel and the Mediterranean Beach Hotel.

He was also named Best Sommelier of Cyprus in 2022. In the same year, he also won the Best Sommelier of the Balkans. Prior to that, he won the Best Young Sommelier of Cyprus award from 2016 to 2019.

The event in Paris will see the participation of 68 candidates from 65 different countries.

The candidates will meet during four days of high-level tests, tasting and service tasks aimed at testing them in professional situations to determine their skills and abilities.

The reigning Best Sommelier of the World is German Marc Almert, who won the award in 2019 in Antwerp, Belgium.

The tri-annual event, originally planned for 2022, was postponed to 2023 because of delays in hosting its regional contests over the past two years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.