You could have cut the atmosphere with a knife such was the tension as the three finalists in the battle to be the ASI (Association de la Sommellerie Internationale)Best Sommelier of the World 2026 lined up on stage for the result.
The moment marked not only the climax of a nerve-jangling grand final, performed in front of a live audience of 600 and live-streamed around the world, but also a gruelling five day process of quarter and semi-finals, preceded by many months of intensive training and revision for the candidates as they prepared for their big moment.
The top three sommeliers in the world. Centre is overall winner Nikolai Haram Svorte, Pascaline Lepeltier of France, who came second, and Wataru Iwata from Japan, who finished third.
The finalists were the eventual winner, Nikolai Haram Svorte, the first Norwegian to earn the title, Pascaline Lepeltier of France, who came second, and Wataru Iwata from Japan, who finished third.
Each candidate endured a 40 minute time-pressured assault course of live blind tasting, bar and restaurant service scenarios and wine list corrections, culminating in the curve ball of a picture round, the candidates asked to identify winery art.
Scoring them, a technical committee of judges, who sit poker-faced on stage, taking notes and scoring in real time, while the finalists sweat it out against the clock.
The contest is not for the faint hearted and to those of us nervously awaiting the result, it looked to be a straight battle between Haram Svorte - who had performed with extraordinary composure - and Lepeltier -arguably the favourite going into the final, who had exuded her experience but lost precious points in a blind tasting challenge.
Iwata had also started well until a major mishap involving sediment in a decanted vintage Port set him back and took its toll on his confidence.
The winner
Nikoli Haram Svorte is a serial sommelier competition winner having won Best Sommelier in the Nordics in 2025
At 29 years old, Haram Svorte is already a competition veteran, having won Norway’s national contest for four consecutive years, as well as being crowned Best Sommelier of the Nordics last year. A former head sommelier at Michelin-starred Speilsalen in Trondheim, Haram Svorte now works as a Champagne specialist for Norwegian importer Moestue.
After the result was announced, an elated Haram Svorte told me how he had worked on his composure: “I have had massive struggles with anxiety related to these competitions so I guess exposure therapy has been good. I have been going to a psychologist and also doing lots of training. I just try to numb my feelings and follow the logic.”
For Lepeltier, it must have felt like history repeating itself after her second placing at the European contest in Belgrade in 2024, but she remained admirably sanguine: “I feel some disappointment of course, but it’s OK, nobody died, it was a beautiful night and we have a fantastic winner. At the end of the day we are here to bring joy, we are very lucky to be sommeliers (as) there are terrible things happening in the world. I’m an itchy girl so I am going to come back stronger.”
The glass ceiling
All the candidates in the 2026 ASI Best Sommelier of the World
Next morning, ASI president, William Wouters, gave me his verdict on the contest: “I’m very happy, I have never seen quality so high in the semi-finals, and as for the final, well these people come from another planet, they are just amazing. Nikolai stayed so incredibly cool, Wataru gave a spirited performance, I’m sad for Pescaline, but I’m also happy for her because she came back and won a place in the final, so I hope she continues, and perhaps next time we can say we have a female world champion.”
Wouters had previously told The Buyer of his hopes that a woman would be crowned as the world’s best during his tenure as president. Addressing those disappointed that Lepeltier had failed to smash through the glass ceiling in Lisbon, Wouters pointed to the record number of female semi-finalists this time - alongside Lepeltier, the UK’s Maria Boumpa; Ireland’s Anke Carmen Hartmann; Iwona Papathoma of Cyprus; and Yi Ying Yong of Malaysia - the five representing a quarter of the 20 who had made it through to the semi-finals, from a field of 66 candidates at the start.
Flying the flag
The UK's candidate Maria Boumpa came an impressive eighth in her first major international sommelier competition
To date, the UK has won the world title just once, in 2010, when the late Gerard Bassett MW MS triumphed at his sixth attempt. Representing the country’s hopes this time while making her international competition debut, Greek-born Maria Boumpa, wine director at London’s Da Terra and 2025 UK Sommelier of the Year, gave a poised performance, finishing an impressive eighth in the rankings, ahead of some well-established names.
Boumpa, who’s about to undertake her Master Sommelier exams, told me the experience of performing on the international stage had been valuable: “I didn’t know quite what to expect, but overall it has been great: the quarter-finals went well, then the semi-final was tough because there was a long wait of almost eight hours, which was very draining, but I think I handled that well. I came eighth, so top 10 at the first go is amazing (and) I came ahead of some very big names which makes you realise that the level is very high, but it can also be very close.”
As to what she takes away from the process, she adds: “First it’s a competition for nerves and psychology, you need to understand that and then apply your wine knowledge. It has been a year-long journey, which means it can be hard to stay on top of things and keep up the momentum, there have been up’s and down’s of course, but it has all paid off.”
So will she have another go? “Well, probably yes,” she tells me, without a hint of hesitation.
Host with the most
The semi-finalists relax before the competition got down to serious business
Held approximately every four years, the global competition is the biggest in the ASI calendar, representing a huge logistical feat while offering an incredible showcase for the host country, the contest returning to Lisbon 48 years after it was first staged in the city. Alongside the various knock-out stages, the Portuguese Sommelier Association (AEP), supported by Portugal’s government and Visit Lisboa, put together a week-long series of tastings, trips, and dinners for the candidates, their supporters, press and sponsors.
The contest featured around a dozen masterclasses, a captive audience of the world’s top sommeliers and their supporters providing an obvious draw for sponsors.
Portugal’s wines were showcased across a number of sessions, a highlight being ‘hidden gems’ with Master of Wine, Dirceu Vianna Junior: a 90 minute tasting of 10 wines from obscure varieties - including Samarrinho, Jampal, Fonte Cal and, my favourite, Tinto Gorda - whose winning combination of scarcity and deliciousness makes them ideal for an ambitious wine list.
While sponsors and their cash are clearly critical, the ASI is a not-for-profit organisation and the Lisbon event was powered by an army of 51 volunteers from 33 different countries, headed by Henri Chapon, a former sommelier.
He says: “Some do it because they are preparing for competitions themselves so it is vital experience, others do it just because they have friends they meet here at each event. They arrive and have to start work straight away and they work incredibly hard, paying their own air fare to get here.”
Among the volunteers, the head of glassware, retired sommelier Gérard Devos, his team responsible for 20,000 Stölzle Lausitz glasses, the contest getting through 8,000 per day, including 1,500 for a single masterclass. At the time of our conversation, midway through the event, he told me just 10 glasses had been broken.
With Nikolai Haram Svorte crowned as ASI Best Sommelier of the World 2026, attention will soon turn to the next events. The inaugural Africa and the Middle East competition, to be staged in South Africa next May, followed by Europe’s contest, in Poland, in September 2027.
David Kermode is a seasoned wine judge, consultant, writer and host of the Drinking Hour podcast, for which The Buyer is trade media partner. He was a guest of the ASI, AEP and Visit Lisboa.
