The search is on to find New Zealand's Top 100 Sommeliers.
The search is underway to find New Zealand’s top sommeliers, those who represent the very best in hospitality.
The Top100Sommeliers New Zealand 2025 will mark the inaugural annual list of talented wine professionals in the on-trade. A definitive guide to the best professionals working in hospitality and beverages service today.
Nominations are open now – join in to celebrate this vibrant and ever-changing industry.
Applications for Top100Sommeliers NZ 2025 are now open.
2025 Category Awards
Top 5 Young Sommeliers
Top 5 Female Sommeliers
Top 5 Ones to Watch
Innovation Award
Legend Award
How the Top 100 are selected?
Led by New Zealand’s only Master Sommelier, Cameron Douglas, the team at Top 100 Sommeliers has over 40 years wine and restaurant industry experience and have learnt a thing or two about what makes a top sommelier. We have collated our knowledge, industry contacts and experience to discover the best sommeliers working in New Zealand restaurants today.
Our database of working sommeliers*, is constantly being updated and we will continue to hone the list to find the best 100.
And, we have developed a comprehensive and meritocratic criteria for selecting the Top 100 Sommeliers, based on a unique points system.
Experience & Seniority
Candidates will be interviewed about their level of experience and their current seniority in the team.
Responsibility & Management
All applicants will be asked about their current responsibility and management experience.
Qualifications & Achievements
Achieving professional qualifications in service, tasting skills and wine knowledge will be reviewed.
Awards & Accolades
Taking part in sommelier competitions and winning wine list awards will also be accounted for and considered.
An additional review by all the judges will further assess:
Judges
For the inaugural Top 100 Sommeliers 2025 an illustrious panel of experts will judge the line up of outstanding sommeliers from around New Zealand.
Each judge brings different expertise and views to scrutinise the entrants in order to establish the highest standards.
Cameron Douglas MS
Master Sommelier
Chair Judge
Gareth Ferreira MS
Beverage Director
CORE by Clare Smyth
Melody Wong
Director of Wine
The Peninsula Hotel
Thierry Tomasin MCA
Restaurant Director
The Grill at The Savoy, London
Eric Zwiebel MS
Head Sommelier
The Samling Hotel
The sign of a great restaurant is not just the food, the experience, the ambience, it also rests with the calibre of the person who serves your wine.
The job of a sommelier is not just about knowledge, it’s about the wine expert’s ability to gauge how much the customer wants to pay, getting the tone right, perhaps moving them away from staff choice to something more exciting, challenging but just right at the same time.
A sommelier is the person who uses their expertise to enable you to choose a wine to go with the food you are soon going to eat.
We have surveyed industry experts from around New Zealand and the general consensus is that what makes a good sommelier is the ability to distil all their knowledge into accessible, bite-sized chunks of information to sell, entice and engage all at the same time.
It takes skill, knowledge, and tenacity to pitch it just right. In just 30 seconds professionals need to be able to measure the level of spend and style of wine without intruding or overcompensating. A juggling act, a talent, a professionalism that can make or break the whole dining experience.
The Top100Sommeliers is a countdown of the very best sommeliers from around NZ’s best restaurants, the people who bring wine alive and excel at every level of service and knowledge. Over the past months we have called for nominations, gathering together a list of the best to be assessed and evaluated by our panel of judges to find the Top100Sommeliers.
