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Pezula Wine Steward To Represent SA In International Jeunes Sommeliers Competition
June 30, 2009 by Timeshare & Fractional Property Magazine, News & Reviews · Leave a Comment
Mortimer Bester, a 24 year-old wine steward at Pezula Resort Hotel & Spa has won the Chaîne de Rôtisseurs’ Jeunes (Young) Sommeliers competition and will represent South Africa at the finals in the UK this September.
Born and raised in Knysna, Bester, who was also named Best Wine Steward in South Africa in last year’s Diners Club International Wine List national awards, had never tasted wine when he joined Pezula as a waiter in 2005.
Werner Wentzel, Pezula’s F&B Manager and Wine Director, who has mentored him for the past four years, says that once he started attending Pezula’s in-house tasting sessions, his passion for and knowledge about wine began to grow in leaps and bounds until in March 2007 he was promoted to Sommelier.
Says Werner: “In all my years in the industry I have not come across anyone with more passion for wine and the service and sale of wine. He is truly a great asset to our company and to the hospitality and wine industries. He has amassed an incredible amount of knowledge in a very short space of time and is an inspiration to all our staff. He spends all his free time studying and visits wine farms whenever he can.”
Werner says that Bester has completed the preliminary wine course with Cape wine Academy as well as the Certificate course and the Wines of the World course, scoring 83% for the latter. “He has also hosted wine-tastings for guests at Pezula with wonderful results and his name appears more regularly than any other on our guest comment forms, in recognition of his knowledge of wine and passion for what he does.”
Bester was the regional winner of the Chaîne de Rôtisseurs’ Jeunes Sommeliers competition last year. This year he received top marks in the final examination which included blind tastings of wines from all over the world.
“Morti was never exposed to wine while he was growing up and now he can confidently talk about and discuss wines from anywhere in the world with just about anyone. He is an inspiration to all young South Africans,” says Werner.
The 2009 International Jeunes Sommeliers Final takes place on 25 September in Stratford-Upon-Avon, UK and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the bailliage of Great Britain.
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