2.50 euros. This is the prize for the bottle of wine that won the gold medal at the “Gilbert & Gaillard International Wine Competition”. At the origin of the deception, Éric Boschman, elected best sommelier in Belgium in 1988, within the framework of the RTBF program “On n’est pas des pigeons“. The one who is also an actor presented this bottle, yet bought in a Delhaize store, as “exceptional” to his colleagues.
For the occasion, the sommelier had stacked the odds on his side: the piquette had been disguised as a good bottle, via a dummy label, a logo in the shape of a pigeon, and the name of “Château Colombier”, a wine supposedly produced from grape varieties located in Côtes de Sambre and Meuse (Wallonia). To everyone’s surprise, the wine won the competition.
During the blind tasting, the jury was indeed particularly complimentary: “Bright garnet red color. Shy nose combining stone fruits, currants, discreet oak. Suave, nervous and rich palate with clean young scents that promise a nice complexity. Evolution on fine spices and a touch of soot. Very interesting”.
For Eric Boschman, this joke reveals a much less funny trend: the proliferation of this kind of competition and the lack of professionalism of some.
Free onbeperkt toegang tot Showbytes? Dat kan!
Log in of maak een account aan en mis niks meer van de sterren.
Ja, ik wil gratis onbeperkt toegang
