Lisbon 2026: what the Best Sommelier of the World tasks say about the profession

Lisbon 2026: what the Best Sommelier of the World tasks say about the profession

If the Best Sommelier of the World competition represents the best of the profession, then its tasks paint a portrait. We went back over the Lisbon 2026 tasks, from the quarter-finals to the stage, to see what is expected of the best among us, and we asked ourselves whether this portrait truly reflects what sommeliers experience on the floor today.

From the quarter-finals to the stage, the Lisbon 2026 tasks as a mirror of the profession

The three finalists on the stage of the Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon 2026 – Photo © ASI

Every edition of the Best Sommelier of the World competition implicitly asks a question: what should the best among us look like? What does the profession demand today? The tasks are the ASI’s answer. In Lisbon, in October 2026, they reveal a profile that we will examine in detail here. We told the story of the competition in a previous article, which explains how the contest shaped the contours of the profession and helped save it. Here, we look at the tasks as a mirror of the profession.

Setting the tone: the committee behind the tasks

The tasks do not fall from the sky. According to the 2026 rules, the ASI Sommelier Contests Committee (SCC) runs the competition and acts as the jury for all three stages. It may modify, add or remove tasks, and invite outside judges (sommeliers, oenologists, chefs, restaurateurs, journalists). The ASI president and the presidents of national associations may attend the final as guests, but do not judge.

The committee is co-chaired by Olivier Poussier (France), Best Sommelier of the World 2000, and Shinya Tasaki (Japan), Best Sommelier of the World 1995. Its members also include Paolo Basso (Switzerland), Best Sommelier of the World 2013, Markus Del Monego (Germany), Best Sommelier of the World 1998, Serge Dubs (France), Best Sommelier of the World 1989, Andreas Larsson (Sweden), Best Sommelier of the World 2007, Raimonds Tomsons (Latvia), Best Sommelier of the World 2023, Paz Levinson (Argentina), Best Sommelier of the Americas 2015, Véronique Rivest (Canada), Best Sommelier of the Americas 2011, and Heidi Makinen (Finland), Master of Wine.

The results are impartial, but the committee decides what the best among us must be able to do: what gets measured becomes what gets practised. Candidates train on tasks similar to those of the competition, and national associations build their selections by looking at past tasks. Beyond the competition itself, these judges therefore shape the profile of today’s and tomorrow’s sommelier, even for the four years between two competitions. Sommeliers who strive for excellence take this as their benchmark.

So let us look together at what the judges expected from the candidates at the latest world competition, in October 2026.

The quarter-finals: the encyclopaedist and seasoned taster

Quarter-finals: the tasting task – Photo © ASI

The quarter-finals take place over two days, for 66 candidates. The first day is written; the second combines tasting and service.

Day 1

  1. Written identification (12 min 30): six beverages to identify, including a Montlouis Chenin, a Hunter Valley Semillon, a Stellenbosch Pinotage, a Ripasso, a Guadeloupe rhum agricole and a Japanese shochu.
  2. 70-question written theory paper. The ASI released a selection of these questions to the press, by theme: viticulture, winemaking, legislation, geography, wine culture, other beverages, non-alcoholic drinks and tobacco. A few examples:
    • match ten vineyards to their soil type (boulbènes, Kimmeridgian, llicorella, albariza…);
    • rank ten vineyards by altitude, from Bolivia to Ecuador by way of Bhutan, Tibet and Nepal;
    • match the winners of the competition to their year, from 1969 to 2023;
    • give the usual bitterness units of an IPA, the meaning of “first flush” for a Darjeeling, or the Culebra cigar format.

The competition requires knowing everything, and the map of “everything” is wide: from winemaking to cigars, from tea to Cognac. Current-affairs questions cover the topics of the moment: the grape varieties of an interspecific cross, a new variety recognised by the OIV for South Africa, or a product based on bacteria discovered in Antarctica to protect vines from frost (in the semi-final).

Day 2

  1. Describe and sell (oral, 2 min): a Niepoort Dry White Port to describe, then to “sell”.
  2. Service: a Riesling Kabinett from the Nahe presented at room temperature, to be chilled quickly. In the setting of a Portuguese restaurant, a food and wine pairing must also be suggested.

Photos © ASI

The semi-finals: the adaptable sommelier

Semi-finals: the tasting task – Photo © ASI

It is the undisclosed quarter-final scores that determine access to the semi-finals. The number of qualifiers is therefore not fixed. In Lisbon, 20 candidates out of 66 qualified (a first), roughly one third. They then faced six tasks:

  1. Questionnaire: 20 written questions on current affairs in the wine world. The ASI released eight of the twenty questions. The paper relies more heavily on current events in the world of wine and gastronomy:
    • In 2026, the OIV recognised a new grape variety for South Africa. What is its name and what is its parentage?
    • 2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the oldest AOC in France, located in the Jura. What is it called?
    • What catastrophic challenges did the Okanagan Valley have to overcome this summer?
    • What are the three nested geographical levels under the DOCa Rioja appellation, introduced in January 2023?
    • On 26 August 2026, a great figure of the Italian wine world passed away at the age of 97. Who was it?
    • Antarctic bacteria can reduce frost damage in viticulture by up to 80%. How is the resulting product, called Crioprotect, used?
    • Which wine would you recommend for the opening cocktail of the Napoleon on St Helena exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London, and why?
    • Which wine would you recommend with classic prawn tempura, and why?
  2. Three rosé Champagnes: identify the wines and their production method (including a Rosé des Riceys, a still wine).
  3. Full tasting (4 min) of a Californian Syrah.
  4. Find the pairs blind (four black glasses): an Amontillado with a Brandy de Jerez, a Pineau des Charentes with a Cognac.
  5. Service: an Australian Marsanne served too cold, with dirty glasses to spot.
  6. Health and wine (oral): advise a guest on alcohol-free alternatives.

Photos © ASI

The final: precision and composure

The final on stage at the Coliseu dos Recreios, Lisbon – Photo © ASI

On stage, the competition becomes a show: every gesture of the sommelier is played out in front of the audience.

Lisbon, 16 October 2026. The Coliseu dos Recreios welcomes around 600 spectators, with a live broadcast on the ASI YouTube channel (viewed 49k times – the 2023 final was viewed 85k times). The three finalists are announced: Norway’s Nikolai Haram Svorte, France’s Pascaline Lepeltier and Japan’s Wataru Iwata. Ten tasks then follow at a breakneck pace for each candidate:

  1. Mise en place (4 min): check the assistant sommelier’s equipment and wines, correct the mistakes and explain everything out loud.
  2. Aperitif service (5 min): three guests, a sweet wine, a sake and a French 75 cocktail.
  3. Blind tasting: four Portuguese grape varieties grown elsewhere in the world (6 min): Bastardo in Argentina, Touriga Nacional in Chile, Tinta Barocca in South Africa, Verdelho in Australia.
  4. Service by the glass: a Brunello with a Coravin, a Chenin and a Champagne. Faults spotted or missed in task 1 (Coravin without gas, cork taint on the Chenin, flat Champagne and a chipped decanter) came back to haunt the candidates here.
  5. Trick labels (10 seconds per label): spot the errors on sweet wine labels, on the theme of AI and fake labels.
  6. A great white wine blind (4 min): a 1999 Grüner Veltliner from Gobelsburg in magnum.
  7. Port and food pairing (7 min): serve a 2003 Vintage at the table and recommend a dish to go with it.
  8. Bubbles of the world (5 min): a sparkling wine from a different country for each course of a five-course Portuguese menu.
  9. Piedmont trio (3 min, plus 3 additional minutes to describe): three wines to identify, rank by vintage, and describe the climatic features of each year in the region.
  10. Art and wine estates (10 seconds per image, 9 images): find the estate where each of the nine works of art is displayed.

Photos © ASI

At this level of competence, details make the difference, and a small mistake can tip the results. But how much does luck come into it? The blind tasting of wines made from Portuguese varieties planted around the world is a good example of the limits. None of the three candidates managed to find even one correct answer in this task. The difficulty is such that only luck can separate them.

The emerging profile

Now, I wonder which skills are needed to succeed in this competition, and whether they match what is expected of a sommelier on the floor today.

If we add up everything the competition demands, we get someone who:

  • knows everything: legislation, geography, history, art, biology, viticulture, oenology, current affairs in the world of wine and of gastronomy…;
  • tastes blind, describes and identifies wines, but also sakes and spirits…;
  • knows the rules of service but can also make cocktails, use today’s tools (such as the Coravin) and demonstrate their technique: decanting, carafing, service by the glass;
  • can build a sales pitch and pair drinks with food to sell;
  • can control a workstation: check the assistant’s mise en place, spot dirty glasses, track down errors;
  • adapts to a changing world: alcohol-free, disease-resistant varieties, new appellations, the year’s news, artificial intelligence and fake labels;
  • handles stress and the unexpected. Svorte said he worked with a psychologist to manage the anxiety of these competitions; Lepeltier prepared like an athlete, with theatre and mental coaching.
Pascaline Lepeltier in the final – Photo © ASI

It is a rare profile. It is also, deliberately, out of the ordinary: a world competition has to separate the candidates, and to do so it must push them to their limits. And it is a chosen profile: the one drawn, task after task, by a committee made up largely of former champions. But is this portrait that of the profession as experienced by sommeliers around the world — ambassadors, salespeople, managers, psychologists — who are asked to run a cellar and a dining room in a sector under strain?

And more broadly, should the competition resemble the floor, or go beyond it? Is a world title meant to measure the day-to-day reality of a dining room, or to designate a summit that the profession can then look up to as a horizon? And if the competition is the profession’s showcase, what do we see in that showcase: the sommelier shaped by the dining room, or the one created by the stage?

And you, sommeliers: what is missing from these tasks for them to reflect your daily work?

To be continued. In the coming articles, we will try to unpack what the profession expects today and define the role this competition plays in today’s world.

Sources: details of the 2026 tasks (quarter-finals, semi-final, final) and ASI “press version” questionnaires; ASI, 2026 competition rules (articles 7 to 23), “About ASI” and “ASI Champions” pages (accessed 23 October 2026); The Buyer, “Behind the scenes at ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2026”; Decanter; Portugal Resident; The Drinks Business (list of the 20 semi-finalists); note.com (Pascaline Lepeltier’s preparation).