"If a few years ago we had asked people what a xarel·lo is, perhaps they would not have been able to answer us"

Vilanova and the GeltruAnna Casabona París (Valls, 1971), seven-time runner-up best sommelier in Catalonia, is from today the new president of the Associació Catalana de Sommeliers (ACS), which has six hundred registered professionals. The same competition in which Casabona has come second in seven editions, she will now organize it herself along with a new board, which is the only one that has been presented to replace the one that was at the head of the association until yesterday, with Anna Vicens, as president, alongside Natàlia Roig, vice-president, with Carles Aymerich; Josep Pelegrín and Ferran Vila on the technical committee and Rafa Gimena in press.

the ovation I received in Girona, last February, when I came second againthe ovation I received in Girona, last February, when I came second again”, says Casabona, adding that the emotion she felt when she saw 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; sommelier Josep Roca, who was hosting the awards dinner at Espirit Roca, and a large part of the members. It was historic, the way they applauded her for her persistence. She herself said that she had come second with top contenders of as great a 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 asked 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 in good standing of the ACS since 1998, I have worked as a sommelier in different areas, from hospitality to training, in retail, in wineries... I think I have a global vision,” she comments.

The program includes the intention to “continue with the good work that the outgoing board has done so far”. From here, working with the new global situation: “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 the culture of wine”.

Casabona understands sommeliers as “the communicators of wines, the bridge that transmits the work of the farmer, of 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 he says this not with the idea that not enough training is done, because he believes there is a lot, but with the thought that it should 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. “Tell me two names of chefs and two names of sommeliers”, is the question that Anna Casabona often asks. And people know names of chefs but not sommeliers. “Yes, they tell me Josep Roca, who has done excellent work 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 established figures in the wine world who do not yet belong to the association, and that she plans to work to get 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, Lérida counties