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Raimonds Tomsons

Latvian sommelier who won the ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2023 title in Paris; previously head sommelier at Restaurant Vincents in Riga.

Oct 1, 2026

37:06
Do you even have a sense of what you felt at that moment? I mean, does the world, does everything go blank for a moment or how that What's it like when you, you know, after however many years of dedication and working towards something that, wow, okay, I just did it.
37:25
Yeah, this moment specifically when you all three are on the stage is very particular because...
37:33
the thing is actually that you really don't know how your colleagues perform because you didn't saw you know you were tested one by one so you can only judge by your own performance which if you did well gives you certain hopes that there is a chance and that was my feeling I was not that stressed because I was quite satisfied about my performance But of course I didn't knew how Nina and Rhys performed.
38:05
So the combination, it was a feeling like combining certain level of of course adrenaline or stress and of course hopes as well because I knew that I did a decent performance with all those applause and ovations and you don't know also the points you know how they how they count the points what are the scoring weights and my initial thought was I do not want to end up number three so when Reece was announced as number three some more hope entered into my mind and Actually, I don't believe I have told this story, and I hope Nina will not mind, but I don't think there is something very, very particular.
38:56
But you can even see in that video, if you look carefully, when myself and Nina, we are standing next to each other, and when William is ready to announce the winner, Nina whispered something in my ear.
39:12
And you can see, actually.
39:15
And she said, I don't remember specifically word by word, but she said something like, this is yours, Raymond, or I have the feeling this is yours.

6 MINS LATER

45:50
I think ecosystem's a great word because of, you know, this tie between, are we, are we on the right path?

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