Road to Lisbon: Making a Champion with Raimonds Tomsons

So you've been competing, well, you competed for close to 15 years, maybe more.

Have you witnessed any evolutions in the sommeliers over that time? Are we seeing more strengths across the globe? What have you noticed in terms of the qualities of sommeliers over that time that you've been competing?

You mean like, especially when it comes to competitions or, or like in general?

Yeah, competition or even overall, like, uh, I mean, uh, have we changed, has anything changed in our profession over that time? You know, is there anything as a sommelier, you know, are we, you know, are we, and are we, you know, on track to kind of solidify our role, um, in the ecosystem as, you know, what is, what does, what is the sommeliers role in this kind of great wine?

Yeah.

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

Well, I think, yeah, I remember my first competition was, uh, international competition was 2008, um, in, in, in, in, uh, Sofia in, in Bulgaria.

And I think in general, the profession as a sommelier has grown into different directions.

Historically, it was always this more or less classic image of our profession, working on a fine dining restaurant, maybe in a stiff outfit.

and nowadays we see the evolution of being more casual and it's not only about working in a fine dining establishment but also in a casual bistro, brasserie, maybe a wine bar and I think that has developed with the natural wine development and also that people are maybe getting a little bit bored with fine dining and too formal dining environments And also I think this goes hand in hand with the evolution of our society, you know, the change of generations, demanding maybe more simple, casual, but high quality things in our life.

So yeah, a lot of things which are influencing each other, including our profession.

What I see and what I'm really happy is that we see more and more ladies joining the competitions and then also you can see in semi-finals the proportion is always quite high when we have ladies.

So when we have ladies their level is really really high which is great and I hope we will see you know, very soon a world or European champion, a lady, hopefully.

So this is another thing.

And I mean, also the role of the sommelier, it's not only about, you know, restaurants and dining, but we see, you know, sommeliers working in wine import and distribution, being influencers and journalists.

I mean, these all kind of, ways and side effects of our profession, like hybrids, you know, and crossings, if you will, which is fascinating.

But that, of course, brings me back sometimes to what is a sommelier nowadays.

And there is no clear definition because I think it's good to stay in this kind of open-minded path we are going to and maybe the way of communication should change and is changing actually the way we are communicating wine with each other and more importantly with the end consumer I think it's less about telling technical things but rather sharing exciting stories and facts and maybe history and the way we communicate because we need to excite people not push away and wine can be sometimes very intimidating I think even being professional with great knowledge, you need to find the best and the right way for each consumer.

Is it a classic maybe? Is it less classic? Is it a new generation? And that is skill and that is experience.

Again, which you can learn by doing, by doing mistakes.

as well, unfortunately, but yeah, you need to have certain experience and gut feeling and you need to read the consumer to understand what actually he is expecting and demanding and, you know, all those small details.

And this is really art, I believe.

This is really art, what defines a good sommelier from a great sommelier.

You know, not just doing service, but doing hospitality.

That's the difference.