Benjamin Roffet : an apostle of sommellerie sacred Best Craftsman of France!

Sommellerie Paris



Benjamin Roffet an apostle of sommellerie sacred Best Craftsman
of France!

"Let’s talk, let’s communicate!”, Benjamin Roffet, Chef sommelier Laurent Beaudouin’s assistant at the Trianon Palace, in Versailles, preaches with conviction. “The culture of wine grows with encounters in France and abroad. We lack sommeliers and I would like to champion this profession!”, this just thirty-year-old, who admits he prefers the atmosphere of damp cellars instead of sunny beaches, declares.

“Wine is becoming a luxury product and it disturbs me. The look over the Primeurs is the same as over the stock exchange index. A good wine is made to be drunk and shared!” the 2010 Best Sommelier of France in Fontevraud underlines. This native from Saint-Etienne’s interest for the wine world developped very early: “I discovered this living product beside my grandfather, a farmer, and my parents who love to go to excellent tables. They initiated me into the pleasure of well-eating and well-drinking.”
Best Craftsman of France in Sommellerie since May 2011, he benefitted from his French Sommellerie Union peers’ advices to succeed in the contest and appreciated this transmission of knowledge.
“I went into competitions to be always informed about what happens in the wine universe and to be able to talk about it under the spotlights. With the state of mind and the will to win, fair play and tact, I prepare for the theory with my memory being
stimulated by passion. I go abroad 15 to 20 times a year to taste wines”, he reveals, explaining his very international vision of wine. “I have worked in London, especially for Gordon Ramsay. Englishmen, who have no vineyards, have the culture to go and see elsewhere.”

The Trianon Palace offers approximately 850 references of which some sixty foreign wines. Benjamin Roffet likes to keep in touch and exchange with the wine growers who assert themselves and give the wine a living expression. “I appreciate craftsmen like Eben Sadie in South Africa, Brian Grosset in Australia, Michel Chapoutier in the Rhone Valley and in Australia, Domaine Didier Dagueneau with the son Louis Benjamin in the Loire Valley … The type of soil, the quantity of bunches, the truth are in the glass!” A little secret from the one whose ambition is to become Best Sommelier of Europe: at the Claridge’s in London, Bruce Willis used to always ask him for the 1986 cuvee from Château Margaux.

Sarah Canonge