Matthieu Longuere comes out top in Wine Australia's Tasting Blind Club

By Richard Siddle

Published: 18 June, 2014

Master Sommelier, Matthieu Longuere, has been announced as the 2014 winner of Wine Australia's Tasting Blind Club.

Over the last few months members of the UK wine trade, from across all channels, have been putting their Australian wine knowledge to the test in a series of blind tastings, highlighting the diversity of the country's wines, at Australia House in London.

Longuere, who is Le Cordon Bleu's wine development manager, came out top in a series finale held this week. His prize will see him travel to Australia later this year to visit many of the country's wine regions and meet some of the leading producers.

Longuere is a well-known figure in the UK wine trade having worked across leading restaurants over the last 20 years.

He said of his win: "It was interesting to taste wine in a different context because I would have tasted some regions or some producers where you know what to expect, but not in a blind tasting. There's been a huge difference between the regions as well as stylistic differences from one producer to another. I was used to blind tasting, but not so much about specific Australian regions and now this will help me to communicate more about Australia."

Emma Harrison, Wine Australia's UK events and education manager, added: "Our Tasting Blind Club is a fantastic way to test skills and improve your knowledge of Australian wine. We've seen several sommeliers, educators, students and press rise to the challenge and the positive feedback we've received suggests we're successfully getting the Aussie word out there at all price points."

Other high-scoring tasters in the Tasting Blind series included:

? Atsuko Furuya

? Bavand Foroughi

? Colin Hampden-White