Anna Casabona, seven times second best sommelier in Catalonia, is the new president of the Catalan Association of Sommeliers

Vilanova i la GeltrúAnna Casabona París (Valls, 1971), seven-time runner-up for Best Sommelier in Catalonia, is from today the new president of the Catalan Association of Sommeliers (ACS), which has six hundred registered professionals. The same competition in which Casabona has been runner-up seven times, she will now organize herself along with a new board, which is the only one that has presented itself to replace the one that has been in charge until yesterday: Anna Vicens, as president, along with Natàlia Roig, vice-president, and as technical committee: Carles Aymerich; Josep Pelegrín, Ferran Vila and Rafa Gimena, to the press.

the ovation I received in Girona, last February, when I was runner-up againthe ovation I received in Girona, last February, when I was runner-up again”, says Casabona, and adds that the emotion she felt seeing everyone standing and applauding her is inexplicable. Present were the Minister of Agriculture, Òscar Ordeig; the Secretary of Food, Rosa Cubel; the entire board of the ACS; the sommelier Josep Roca, who was hosting the awards dinner at El Celler de Can Roca, and a large part of the members. The way they applauded her for her perseverance was historic. She herself said she had been runner-up to first-class individuals of such great caliber as Marta Cortizas, Paula Cuenda, Cyril Vermeulen, Toni Albiol, Toni Colet and Audrey Dore. “I have enjoyed all these years preparing for and participating in the competitions, but it's time to move to the other side and work for the association”, she says.

Sommeliers as communicators

To do so, she has requested permission from the company where she works, Juvé & Camps, and has prepared the program, along with her board, to decide what they can contribute: “I have been a member of the ACS in good standing since 1998, I have worked as a sommelier in different areas, from hospitality to training, retail, and wineries; I believe I have a global vision,” she comments.

The program includes the intention to “continue the good work that the outgoing board has done so far”. From here, we will work with the new global situation, in which “wine is suffering, and I believe that sommeliers can and have the responsibility to do something to reverse it”. In this regard, the program also commits to generating valuable content that better explains “the work of the sommelier and their contribution to the sector and to wine culture”.

Casabona understands sommeliers as “the communicators of wines, the bridge that transmits the work of the farmer, the producer to the consumer. Sommeliers transmit what is behind the glass of wine they serve, and therefore, to reach the consumer, we want to promote more training”. And she says this not with the idea that you think not enough training is done, because she believes there is a lot, but with the thought that it must always be done. “We must always provide more tools”. They will also continue to hold the competition, because “it is a way to give visibility to the work of sommeliers”, about whom society often does not speak. “Name two chefs and two sommeliers”, is the question that Anna Casabona often asks, whose answer is that people know chefs' names but not sommeliers'. “Yes, they tell me Josep Roca, who has done an excellent job in the profession, but a second name rarely appears”.

Josep Miquel Guasch, vice president, Girona countiesTo conclude, the new president of the ACS says that in Catalonia there are renowned figures in the wine world who do not yet belong to the association, and that she plans to work for them to join. It is the way to make the profession stronger, so that it reaches more people.

The new ACS team

• Anna Casabona, president
• Josep Miquel Guasch, vice president, Girona regions
• Joan Lluís Gómez, vice president, Barcelona regions
• Lucía Castaño, vice president, Tarragona regions
• Gregori Albareda, vice president, Lleida regions