Vincenzo Arnese, how he’s preparing for Best Sommelier of Europe & Africa Contest next week

Our UK candidate for the contest is Vincenzo Arnese. It will be Vincenzo up there on stage with all eyes and pressure on him but it’s taken a team behind the scenes to support and prepare him to be able to perform optimally next week.

Last week we shared how Vincenzo has been working with Olympic coach Simon Cox (if you missed the interview you can read it here).

In addition to coaching with Simon, Vincenzo has been meeting regularly with Eric Zwiebel, the UKSA’s Training Director and a number of Vincenzo’s peers have been involved in his training programme too. There is a core training team of 4 Somms, including, Agnieszka Swiecka, Alexandre Freguin, Christopher Delalonde and Philipp Reinstaller. They have all been putting Vincenzo through his paces with questionnaires, tastings and service tasks.

In September, Eric and Vincenzo spent a week exploring the wineries of Serbia and immersing themselves in the culture of the country, whilst sampling the food and wine delights that Serbia has to offer… all with the intention of making Vincenzo more aware of the country and to be as prepared as possible in readiness for the contest.

 In these last few weeks ahead of the contest a bespoke training schedule devised by Eric and Simon has been implemented, including one to one and group training sessions focussing on the details, identifying and resolving any possible pitfalls and honing Vincenzo’s skills.

We are wishing Vincenzo all the very best in Serbia.

He will be able to hear us cheering him on from here!