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She was followed by runners-up Marcelo Rebolé, Head Sommelier at the Park Hyatt Buenos Aires Hotel; Carolina Garicoche, from a food and wine consulting firm called STG; and Martín Mantegini, who was born in Mendoza and is the director of “Welcome to Wine”, a specialised wine-tourism agency.
Agustina graduated with honours as a sommelier in 2007, and has worked as a sommelier for the reputed Hostería Los Notros, close to the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia. “I have wanted to be a sommelier since I was 15. All this has happened so fast that I can’t believe it, especially with such good participants competing… I want to thank the Argentine Sommelier Association for organising this great event, and look forward to representing my country in the future.”
Her words were preceded by those of José Luís Lanzarini, who is both a winemaker and the president of the Fondo Vitivinícola Mendoza, an official institution dedicated to running the Vino Argentino, Un buen vino (“Argentine Wine, a good wine”) campaign to promote Argentine wine on the domestic markets, who stated “we are seeing tremendous developments for the’ sommelier profession in Argentina. Thanks to the AAS and its members, there is a new future for Argentine wine. Sommeliers have unquestionably progressed from being a novelty in our country, to being a need in our industry.”
Andrés Rosberg, president of AAS, gave thanks for all the support received, saying that the “success of this contest is a big step forward for our young organisation as well as a small contribution to Argentina’s growing wine and gastronomy sectors”. He invited everybody present to attend the first “Best Pan-American Sommelier” contest, organised by the Pan-American Sommelier Alliance (APAS), which will be held in Buenos Aires in 2009. It will bring together the two best sommeliers of Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile and Argentina, among others.
About the Argentine Sommelier Association
The Asociación Argentina de Sommeliers (AAS) was founded on May 9th 2001. It has been a member of the International Sommelier Association (ASI), since 2002, and was a co-founder of the Pan-American Sommelier Alliance (APAS) in 2007, for which it also is Secretary. It is a non-profit-making organisation that works to promote moderate wine consumption, contributes to improving Argentine gastronomy, and seeks to develop, federate and represent the Argentine Sommelier profession both in Argentina and abroad.
It enforces the ASI’s educational standards in Argentina, working with four sommelier schools (the Escuela Argentina de Sommeliers -EAS- with centres in Buenos Aires and Mendoza; the Escuela Argentina de Vinos –EAV-, the Centro Argentino de Vinos y Espirituosas –CAVE-, and the L’ École Institute of Mar del Plata). It currently counts more than 200 professional members, many of whom work for the finest hotels and restaurants in Argentina.
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