Marlborough sommeliers step up

While Marlborough produces great wine, the region has been acknowledged for producing some of the country’s best sommelier experiences. In the inaugural Champagne Louis Roederer Top 100 New Zealand Sommeliers awards, Soif Wine Shop’s Arthur Griffoul placed 11th, Liz Buttimore and Benji Smith from Arbour placed 22nd and 33rd respectively, with Liz also in the top five women list, and Harvest’s Neil Kapadia came in the unranked 50th to 100th category.

Each of the four were pleased to be acknowledged in the awards, which require a nomination from the public, and were thrilled with the overall result for their fellow local entrants.

“Benji and I are incredibly honoured to be ranked in the Top 100 Sommeliers in New Zealand, and I’m still taking in the news of being named as one of the top five females”, says Liz.

“Head judge Cameron Douglas and his team have created an amazing platform to celebrate our profession, and we thank every guest that trusts us with their dining experience.

“Our wine programme is shaped by the seasons, local produce, local stories, and the release cycles of our winery neighbour, and Benji and I both feel lucky to be within a business that values beverage service as highly as food.

“Arbour’s co-owner, chef Bradley Hornby, actively encourages the constant investment required to support a wine list as extensive and thoughtfully cellared as ours.”

Soif’s Arthur Griffoul said that the appreciation for sommelier presentation and knowledge has grown exponentially since first coming to New Zealand 13 years ago.

“It’s great to see New Zealand coming along into that understanding of what a sommelier is, the passion for wine and wine culture and the art form of both wine and its presentation”, he said from his central Blenheim shop.

“It’s the inaugural ranking but the minute I saw there was big names in the industry sponsoring like Champagne Louis Roederer and Negociants, I was really motivated to do well, especially to get Soif’s name out there.

“My mentors always told me that you have to be like an iceberg in front of the customer and present the story of the wine into something they can understand and learn from.

“My desire is to offer wines of quality, promoting small, independent producers that you couldn’t find in Marlborough and being a sort of second-hand cellar door for a lot of the export wines we have.

“Having four nominated professionals in the beginning - I’m sure that we’ll have plenty more in future coming from here and increasingly putting Marlborough hospitality on the map.”