And the winner is!
The best of the best. Wikus Human has beat the top sommelier’s in the country to be named the Best Sommelier in South Africa for 2021 by the South African Sommeliers Association (SASA). Human is the head sommelier at The Marble Restaurant, proudly one of our clients.
This isn’t the first time Human has been honoured. He was also named Best Young Sommelier in SA in 2017. “It’s the biggest lifetime achievement for me, all the hard work I have put in with my team for the last five years paid off”, says Human.
To win he had to do numerous tests, including a food and wine pairing in a very limited time.“It was a six-course menu, which you had to study within two minutes, which was quite quick. According to ASI [Association de la Sommellerie] from six different continents, you had to choose one wine from every continent to pair with the food within five minutes.” And to add to the pressure it is all done orally so contestants couldn’t write down their guesses. All his experience gained at Marble has certainly paid off.
“As a good sommelier, you can quickly provide what wine you can pair with, what would work well to compliment all dishes that are on the table,” he explains.
Human was quite confident that his pairings would be spot on. His tip for the perfect food-and-wine pairing is selecting the wines first, making it easier when creating your dishes.
In the past couple of years, South Africa’s wines have won much acclaim and Human says the quality of the country’s wines in the last five to 10 years has improved drastically.
“South Africa continues to climb to the top… We have so much value for money here and we have exceptional wines that can definitely stand up to some of the international wines.”
We send our biggest congratulations to Wikus Human and the Marble Group on this sterling achievement.
