On 16th January, thirty of the world’s most renowned sommeliers travelled from all corners of the globe to the UK to take part in the world premiere of the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection, an exclusive tasting from William Reed, the name behind The World’s 50 Best Restaurants and World’s Best Vineyards. Producers were invited to submit their wines into this unique tasting that guarantees their wine is presented to some of the most acclaimed palates in the world. The final selection will serve as a useful tool for on-trade professionals all over the globe to seek out peer-recommended wines.

Representing four continents and 16 countries, the sommeliers invited onto the panel are globally acclaimed, with many featured on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list. The panel tasted wines submitted by producers from all over the world in order to make their final selection. Sommeliers from restaurants such as Disfrutar (Barcelona), Central and Kjolle (Lima), DiverXO (Madrid), The Jane (Antwerp), Quintonil (Mexico City), Alchemist (Copenhagen), and Gaggan Anand (Bangkok) came together in the UK to take part in the tasting. See the full list of sommeliers involved here.

Jhonel Faelnar, Beverage Director at Atomix in New York comments, “What makes this event really important is first and foremost gathering together sommeliers from around the world, from different restaurants, from different countries and different cities who all have different points of view. I think that gives us the chance to really speak with each other, to see each other’s perspectives and to taste the same wine in front of each other and have thoughts and ideas come to mind together.”

Mireia Pujol-Busquets from Spanish winery, Alta Alella, whose cava was included in this year’s selection says, “I was thrilled to have the opportunity to present my cava to such an acclaimed group of sommeliers. It is incredibly important to get my wine in front of such influential decision makers, and to ensure it is part of relevant discussions within the industry. The event gave me the chance for a real evaluation of my cava by people with immense knowledge and experience who were able to assess it against other exceptional wines.”

Stefan Doktor from Schloss Johannisberg in Germany, whose wine was also selected by the sommeliers adds, “We found the event extremely rewarding because we were able to showcase our wine in a really meaningful way and give a detailed account of the narrative behind the bottle. This allowed us to do justice to all the work that is done at the winery and present our wine in context. We are delighted to have a place in the selection and pleased to have had the opportunity to share our wine with such a highly regarded global community of sommeliers.”

Lucas Barinc from Mahsarto d’Midin in the Şırnak region of Turkey adds, “Turkish wine is a real niche offering so we were delighted to have the opportunity to get our wine in front of sommeliers of such a high calibre. Each of the sommeliers represents different cultures and different styles of food, which gave us a real insight into where our wine sits from a gastronomic perspective. We’re thrilled to have been selected and look forward to sharing our wine with sommeliers around the world.”

The complete World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection 2024 is available to view here, accompanied by the sommeliers’ extensive tasting notes and food pairing recommendations. The worldsbestsommeliersselection.com provides sommeliers from all over the world with a great place to source interesting wines for their wine list in the knowledge that they have been specially selected by their peers. The website also offers the unique functionality of being able to search for wines based on terroir (eg. high altitude, cool climate), seasonality and food pairings opposed to the traditional filter of grape varieties.

Andrew Reed, Managing Director Wine and Exhibitions at William Reed, comments: “We are delighted to bring this exciting new venture to the William Reed portfolio. The World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection gives exceptional winemakers the opportunity to present their wines exclusively to top sommeliers from across the globe. This tasting is unique on so many levels, but for the producers who submit, one of the biggest attractions is the guaranteed audience. The sommeliers had the opportunity to listen to and enjoy the stories behind each of the wines, meaning they were able to truly appreciate the narrative of each bottle. I think the World’s Best Sommeliers’ Selection website will be an invaluable source of information for all sommeliers all over the world and we are thrilled by the positive feedback that we have had from the sommeliers that took part; we are already looking forward to the tasting in 2025!”