Cuba to Attend World Wine Tasting Contest

Havana, Sep 29 (Prensa Latina) Cuba will attend next year the World Wine Tasting Championship, whose venue is still to be announced, informed today spokespersons of the Cuban Sommelier Club, satisfied for the high level accomplished by local tourism.

The sources said that alter rigurous theoretical and practical tests, the best Sommelier in Cuba and representative to that world event, Marcelo Leonel Rodriguez, expert in wines of the Sierra Maestra restaurant of the Habana Libre Tryp Hotel.

The specialist won the first National Contest of Sommeliers in Cuba last weekend, a test valid to attend the world championship in 2009.

The second place went to Placido Sariol, of Hotel Ancon in Trinidad, colonial city in Sancti Spiritus, central province, while the third place went to Ignacio Cifre Castro, sommelier of the Inglaterra Hotel of the capital.

At the event, the Prize for the work of a lifetime was awarded to Marta Señan of restaurant La Ferminia, to Fernando Fernandez, professor and sommelier of the School of High Studies in Hostelry and Tourism, FORMATUR, as well as to Jose Luis Brito, maitre of Inglaterra Hotel.

The contest was held at the Ambassador Salon of Habana Libre Tryp Hotel, one of the most emblematic of the country, with the participation of 10 finalists of the 40 who took part in that event. The winner was a finalist in 2004 for the prestigious Ruinart Trophy in its ninth edition, held in the French locality of Reims, considered the center of European sommeliership.

Rodriguez is 42 years old, and 12 of them linked to restaurant work. He obtained the Prize Habano-Sommelier on three occasions in the Habano Festival and has Certified Level in Wine and Licquors, category given by WSET(Wine and Spirit Education Trust of London).