On November 18, 2016, The French American Chamber of Commerce of San Francisco conducted the finals of the “Best Wine Students of La Soiree” at The Village on Market Street in San Francisco. The competition started with 17 students who went through the elimination round on November 10, at the offices of Wine Business Monthly.
The 4 students finalists were:
o Anastasia Utkina (UC Davis)
o Collin Russell (Culinary Institute of America)
o Jenni Burgess (San Francisco Wine School)
o Yuri Shima (San Francisco Wine School)
The competitors went through a blind tasting of a white and a red wines. Following the tasting, the students had to answer 3 grape growing, 5 wine making, and 5 marketing questions, plus a tie-breaker question. After many friendly interruptions by well-wishing La Soiree participants, the results were tabulated and the final ranking is as follows:
o GOLD medal with 18 points (out of 23 possible – a record!!) – Jenni Burgess
o SILVER medal (won the tie breaker question with the Bronze medal winner) - Collin Russell
o BRONZE medal - Anastasia Utkina
o 4th PLACE winner – Yuri Shima
Congratulations to all 4 finalists - From left to right, Yuri, Anastasia, Jenni, and Collin.
The award ceremony was presided by Louis Zandvliet, Tonnellerie Radoux Vice-President and the generous donor/sponsor of the $1,000, $500, $300, and $100 cash prizes for the finalists. Thank you Louis and Tonnellerie Radoux...
Thank you to FACCSF for hosting this wonderful event and to all the participants!
