The candidates for Best Sommelier of the World 2023 – and the Star Wine List people competing

Pascaline Lepeltier, representing France.
Andreas Grube
Published 02-February-2023
News

The ASI Best Sommelier of the World competition 2023 is coming up, starting on 7th February. This year, the tri-annual event will be held in Paris, where 68 sommeliers from 54 countries will compete.

The final of Best Sommelier of the World will be held on Sunday 12 February, and more than 3,500 professionals attend join the show at Paris La Défense Arena. The competition will also be live streamed.

Among the 68 contestants, we are happy to see several of Star Wine List’s ambassadors and jury members, like Pascaline Lepeltier (France), Raimonds Tomsons (Latvia), Tawanda Marume (Zimbabwe), Reeze Choi (Hong Kong, China) and Wataru Iwata (Japan) to name just a few.

Here you can see all the contestants, including everyone connected to Star Wine List. We wish everyone the best of luck in the competition! Go, go, go!

EUROPE & AFRICA

• Bujur Tukuli, Albania
• Suvan Zlatic, Austria
Tom Ieven, Belgium (Star Wine List ambassador Antwerp/Flanders)
• Ivan Jug, Croatia
Sotiris Neofytidis, Cyprus (Star Wine List Cyprus ambassador)
• Jakub Pribyl, Czech Republic
Nina Jensen, Denmark (who has created a Star Wine List guide to her favourite wine spots in Copenhagen)
• Mikk Parre, Estonia
• Antero Niemiaho, Finland
Pascaline Lepeltier, France (member of Star Wine List’s international jury panel)
• Jaba Dzimistarishvili, Georgia
Maximilian Wilm, Germany (Star Wine List's new Hamburg ambassador)
Aristotelis Sklavenitis, Greece (Star Wine List ambassador in Greece)
• Juan Sebastian Giraldo, Hungary
• Manuel Schembri, Iceland
• Anke Hartmann, Ireland
Salvatore Castano, Italy (Star Wine List jury member)
• Mattia Antonio Cianca, Italy
Raimonds Tomsons, Latvia (Star Wine List ambassador Latvia, and jury member)
Martynas Pravilonis, Lithuania (Star Wine List's new ambassador in Lithuania)
• Grégory Mio, Luxembourg
• Jeff Luciano Thome, Mauritius
• Bruno Scavo, Monaco
• Kamel Essbai, Marocco
• Adrian Visser, Netherlands
• Francesco Marzola, Norway
• Kamil Wojtasiak, Poland
• Carine Patricio, Portugal
• Adrian Jipa, Romania
• Vuk Vuletic, Serbia
• Rastislav Sutak, Slovakia
• Valentin Bufolin, Slovenia
• Jo Wessels, South Africa
• Diego Gonzalez, Spain
Ellen Franzén, Sweden (who has created a guide with her favourite wine spots in Sweden)
• Reza Nahaboo, Switzerland
• Elena Hayat, Turkey
• Eric Zwiebel, UK
• Maryna Revkova, Ukraine
Tawanda Marume, Zimbabwe (joined as jury member for Star Wine List of the Year South Africa)

AMERICAS

• Andrea Donadio, Argentina
• Valeria Gamper, Argentina
• Luis Otavio Alvares Cruz, Brazil
• Pier Alexis Souliere, Canada
• Marcelo Arriagada, Chile
• Nicolas Reines, Colombia
• Luis Rosado, Dominican Republic
• Jose Maria Aguirre Murtinho, Ecuador
• Miguel Maldonado, Mexico
• Alejandra Gavigan, Paraguay
• Gerardo Joseph Ruiz Acosta, Peru
• Federico de Moura, Uruguay
Mark Guillaudeu, USA (Star Wine List ambassador San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland)
• Gustavo Garcia Escalona, Venezuela

ASIA & OCEANIA

• Paolo Saccone, Australia
Reeze Choi, China (Star Wine List ambassador Hong Kong)
• Wicien Widjaja, Indonesia
Wataru Iwata, Japan (Star Wine List ambassador Kyoto)
• Ratmir Akhmetov, Kazakhstan
• Jungmin An, South Korea
• Chuan Ann Tan, Malaysia
• Andrea Martinisi, New Zealand
• Ian Odilio Santos, Philippines
• Joel Lim, Singapore
• Mason Ng, Singapore
• Nutawan Jumpanak, Thailand
• Kevin Lu, Taiwan
• Khan Vi Le Hoang, Vietnam

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