The sommeliers’ best friends – Par Excellence awards are announced

The sommeliers have the hard job to sell the wines from the wine list, and the more information they have, the easier this job is. Therefore the Hungarian Sommelier Association awards those professionals in their annual celebration, who helps their work in the most effective way. The Par Excellence awards of 2016 were announced on 12 December.

• The Par Excellence award in the winemakers’ category this year went to Nimród Kovács, the owner of Kovács Nimród Winery, Eger, who – besides producing great wines – is especially active in helping the sommeliers with workshops, excursions, wine tastings.
• In the wine merchant category Attila Tálos, co-owner of Bortársaság wine stores was awarded, who has been running the stores for 20 years, and these shops work as a kind of educational centre where regular tastings are organized.
• The gastronomy caregory award went to Lajos Bíró, the chef who runs Bock Bistro in Budapest and three other top category restaurants. His creativity is legendary – if you taste his ’tripe carpaccio’, you will understand.
• Wine instructor category award was given to Gabriella Mészáros, co-owner of Borkollégium, who has been teaching for 25 years, and educated almost every wine professional in Hungary.
• Wine writer category award went to Gábor Cseh, a wine journalist whose articles appear regularly in professional publications.

The award ceremony will be held on 18 February, 2017, within the coffee and drinks exhibition called KávéBár Bazár, along with the Hungarian Sommelier Championship.