The first woman to compete at the Turkish Sommelier Competition, and its runner-up

Published in 2010

Burçak Desombre noses a glass at the competition tasting table; the event banner stands to the right.

Sabah covered the second edition of the Turkish Sommelier Competition. I was the first woman to compete in it; I finished second.

Twelve young candidates entered the second edition of the competition run by the Turkish Sommelier Association. It had two stages: a written paper of thirty questions, then an interview. After that four wines were set on the table, two white and two red; you had to name the grape, the aromas, the country and whether it had seen oak.

Burçak Desombre during the tasting round; the glasses on the table and the judges opposite. — The tasting round: four wines on the table, two white and two red.

I was the only woman among the twelve. No woman had entered the year before either. Yet it is well known that women have the sharper sense of smell; the barrier is not ability, it is the thought of walking through that door.

The competition finalists with their certificates in front of the event banner; Burçak Desombre is the only woman in the group. — The finalists of the competition. I am the first woman to compete in the Turkish Sommelier Competition.

Entering was an accident. In 2010 I had passed WSET Level 3, the level below the diploma I hold today, with distinction; I heard about the competition while going to collect that certificate, and prepared in a week. The only part I struggled with was service: I had been tasting constantly since I started in the trade and had finished the theory, but service is learned on the floor.

I always explain food and wine pairing with a salad. If, after the oil, you think “let us add a little lemon, it is flat otherwise”, you are already pairing. You are balancing aroma against taste. Temperature changes taste too; two glasses of the same wine served differently can strike you as one bad and one good.