The young sommelier of Grand Hôtel de Cala Rossa made his mark under the gaze of the most famous Corsican sommelier, Pascal Léonetti.
Antoine Soria, 24, first imagined to become a sport journalist, finally chose to work in the hotel and restaurant professions, especially in the wine world, and has just added an important line on his résumé. A beautiful story he owes to his work as well as to the dynamism of the Association of Sommeliers of Corsica.
Thanks to Paul Bordigoni, the association has been recognized full member region of UDSF in 2006. Presided over by Raphaël Pierre-Bianchetti who comes to the end of his term, it now totals forty members, has a regular activity and has become an inevitable partner of the appellations of the 'Isle of Beauty'. Many assets gathered in late November at Hôtel Sofitel Ajaccio that hosted both the Contest of the Best Sommelier in Corsican wines and the gala evening of the association.
The jury of the contest comprised some special guests. First, Pascal Léonetti, native Corsican and Best Sommelier of France 2006. But also Jean-Luc Jamrozik (president of the Association of Sommeliers from Paris) and Philippe Munos (president of the Association of Sommeliers from Jura-Franche-Comté).
The examinations imagined by Christophe Giraud, technical manager of the contest, enabled five candidates to show off their theoretical knowledge, as well as their savoir-faire through more practical workshops. The last one, a kind of finals, took place in front of a very interested audience, with many winegrowers.
They could watch the performance of each candidate, three of them bearing the colours of Grand Hôtel de Cala Rossa at Porto-Vecchio, Céline Fagard, Maxime Credoz-Grenard and Antoine Soria. The other sommeliers engaged were Quentin Goepfert from Domaine de Murtoli at Sartène and Dominique Peretti who represented U Capu Biancu at Bonifacio.
For most of them the competition was their first professional contest. And they did well although the level of the tests were very high. They have thus all been congratulated by Pascal Léonetti. Starting with the winner. A young professional who, after a litterary baccalauréat, totally changed direction. “At high school I used to work sometimes in a wine bar at Ghisonaccia. That is where I had a calling. Once I passed my baccalauréat, I first did an upgrade class before I joined a vocational degree with a culinary and table art option. I spent two training periods at Cala Rossa and meeting Patrick Fioramonti, the restaurant manager, has been a new trigger component in 2014 when he asked me to accept the position of sommelier.”
Like in 2015 he participated in the selection of the Contest of the Best Young Sommelier of France – Duval-Leroy Trophy, hoping to rank among the finalists and arouse vocations in turn, although Corsica suffers because it has no complementary mention in sommellerie anymore.
Jean Bernard
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