This is the couple who just won 35,000 euros for guessing 14 wines blindfolded
The 18th Wine Tasting for Couples competition is organized by the Vila Viniteca store and distributor and took place today, Sunday, at the Lonja de Barcelona.
BarcelonaAbsolute euphoria for Álvaro Ribalta and Thomas Luke Parker, the winning pair of the 18th wine competition held at the Llotja in Barcelona and organized by the shop and distributor Vila Viniteca. The winners took home €35,000 for blind-tasting fourteen wines, divided into two rounds. In the morning, from 10:30 a.m. to noon, participants had to guess seven wines, and in the afternoon, starting at 4:30 p.m., seven more. Of the fourteen wines, the winners correctly identified the country, region of origin, appellation of origin, grape variety, vintage, producer, and brand. In other words, an immeasurable feat, within reach of the very best, and probably also a matter of luck, because in a competition of this kind there is a very high percentage of study and professional expertise (hence the large number of participants being winemakers and sommeliers) and another of unconscious courage.
In second place are the team of Ramon Jané (from the Mas Candí winery) and Toni Carbó, winemakers and producers of Corpinnat in the Penedès region, who have won €10,000. Both are veterans of the competition, having won it twice before, and this time they have achieved a very commendable position. And in third place are the young Alberto Ruffoni and Patricio Zárate (a sommelier and consultant by profession), who take home €5,000.
A distinguished jury
In the morning, among the 125 participating couples, the general comment was that they could hear different languages being spoken. And this opinion was well-founded, because Vila Viniteca confirmed that this year's participants came from ten different nationalities. After 2 p.m., when Quim Vila and Siscu MartíThe owners of Vila Viniteca appeared in the main hall of the Lonja, accompanied by the rest of the jury, made up of big names in the wine world – winemaker Xandra Falcó; Fernando Gurucharri, as president of the jury; Jordi Segura, head of Riedel-Euroselecció; Paz Levinson, wine director of the Anne Sophie Pic group in France; and wine experts Juan Muñoz and José Peñín. The silence was profound. Everyone was quiet, eager to hear which of the 125 pairs would become the ten finalists who would advance to the final round that afternoon. The tension was palpable, so intense you could cut it with a knife. And indeed it was, because the participants had explained during the midday break that the wines had been very challenging. Some regulars at the competition even said they were more difficult than in previous years.
Next, the competition's notary, Antoni Boix, revealed one by one the seven wines that the contestants had to guess in the morning's round. First, a Gramona Imperial 2019 from Corpinnat; followed by a Bimbache John Stone 2024 (El Hierro); then a Domaine des Comtes Lafon Meursault Primer Crudo Porusot 2022 (Burgundy); next, a Sine Qua Non Aperta 2018 from California; fifth, a Juan de Anguera Viña de la Gloria 2020 (DO Montsant); then a The Sadie Family Columella 2023 (South Africa); and finally, a Château Climens 2010 (Bordeaux).
The ten selected couples posed for a photo, and everyone went to lunch until 4 p.m., when the second phase of the competition began. This part of the competition lasted only an hour, until 5:30 p.m. The jury reappeared an hour and a half later, at 7 p.m., and revealed the wines they had to guess. They were Schloss Gobelsburg Tradition Heritage Cuvée 10 Years, Kamptal; Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha Viñas Viejas 2023, Calatayud; Château Lafleur 1983, Bordeaux; RL Legras Cuvée Saint-Vincent 2012, Champagne; and Pepe Raventós Mas del Serral 2014, Cuenca del Río Anoia. Le Gallais Wiltinger Braune Kupp Spätlese 2019, Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, and González Byass Tío Pepe Amontillado Cuatro Palmas Saca 2017 (0.5 L), Jerez. The notary then announced the winning pair (Álvaro Ribalta and Thomas Luke Parker), and euphoria erupted, along with tears of emotion, among the winners of the €35,000 prize.
In this edition of the competition, 14.4% of the participants were women (36 women out of a total of 250 participants), and only one managed to qualify for the final.