- Chef Allan Schultz and sommelier Alexander Berntsen, representatives of the Parsley Salon restaurant in Denmark, won over the jury with a proposal full of nuances and won the X Copa Jerez.
- The United Kingdom team was awarded the prize for Best Starter Pairing, the Netherlands team for Best Main Course Pairing, Spain for Best Dessert Pairing and Germany for Most Creative Pairing.
- Chef and sommelier teams from some of the best restaurants in 7 countries have competed simultaneously in the world's largest live gastronomic show, with risky, brave and surprising pairing proposals.
Jerez de la Frontera, October 4, 2023 - Copa Jerez Forum & Competition 2023, the largest international meeting that brings together Sherry Wines and avant-garde gastronomy, organized by the Consejo Regulador de Vinos de Jerez y Manzanilla in collaboration with Fedejerez, concluded today with the awards ceremony.
After the exciting International Final of the X Copa Jerez held yesterday, the winner of this edition was the team from Denmark, formed by chef Allan Schultz and sommelier Alexander Berntsen, representatives of the restaurant Parsley Salon in Hellerup.
The winners of the title of Copa Jerez 2023 declared: "It has been a few months of hard preparatory work, very focused on the competition and we came for everything: we definitely wanted to win and take the Copa Jerez to Denmark. The defense before the jury was not easy, but if there was one thing we were clear about, it was that we had to express our way of working at home, trust in our elaborations and decisions, and show that the wine from sherry plays a very important role in our restaurant". The absolute protagonists of the edition declare themselves to be in love with sherry wines and assure that their relationship has been further strengthened in this gastronomic journey. "To continue learning about these wines and to compete in the very heart of their territory of origin are the keys to this competition. Copa Jerez combines many attractions and cannot be conceived in any other way," they add.
The menu paired with Sherry wines with which the Danish team has participated and that has conquered the jury of the competition was as follows:
- Starter: King prawns poached and seasoned with a vinegar beurre blanc and pickled rye, green celery, sea lettuce and sisho, accompanied with Manzanilla Soluqua from Bodegas Barón.
- Main course: Quail dry-aged for two weeks, served poached and flambéed with a stuffing of veal sweetbreads, with quail liver sauce, caramelized bones, spices and garlic and accompanied by pickled chestnuts, candied kumquats and orange. For pairing, they chose the Oloroso from Bodega Rey Fernando Castilla.
- Dessert: Ice cream made over caramelized ripe figs and toasted butter, served with peanut praline and sea salt, paired with Pedro Ximénez VOS from Bodegas Tradición.
"I have known sherry wines since I was a child, my great-grandmother served them at family meals, they bring me security because they are closely related to my childhood," commented Berntsen during the presentation of his proposal to the jury last Tuesday at the Villamarta Theater in Jerez. "We want to share our passion for sherry and the versatility of its pairings with so many flavors and nuances."
The jury for the IX Copa Jerez was made up of five internationally renowned professionals: Jancis Robinson (writer, wine critic and Master of Wine), Almudena Alberca (winemaker and Master of Wine), Melania Bellesini (sommelier at The Fat Duck***), Pascaline Lepeltier (writer and Best Sommelier in France 2018), and Josep Roca (sommelier and co-owner of El Celler de Can Roca***).
Jancis Robinson, on the jury's choice of the Danish team as the winner, declared that "the proposal stood out for the precision in the cooking, the apparent simplicity of delicious dishes in which no ingredient was superfluous and each one of them had its own meaning". The writer also pointed out that "the succession of pairings was characterized by its great progression, with an excellent selection of wines, where all of them told a great story".
Other prizes awarded in the X Copa Jerez were:
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- Juli Soler Award for Best Sommelier: Gianluca di Taranto, Cook & GTD restaurant, Belgium.
- Best Chef: Allan Schultz, Parsley Salon Restaurant, Denmark.
- Best Pairing with Starter: Cured red snapper, shiso emulsion, Yuzu koji vinaigrette accompanied by Manzanilla Pasada almacenista Cuevas Jurado from Bodegas Lustau. From Dinings SW3 restaurant in the United Kingdom.
- Best Main Course Pairing: Sweetbreads with eel and wasabi "Vigor", with Oloroso de Gutiérrez Colosía. From the restaurant Vigor, in the Netherlands.
- Best Dessert Pairing: Cocoa, hazelnut and tonka bean fermentation paired with Cream 79 "Bota No" by Equipo Navazos. From Ambivium restaurant, Spain.
- Most Creative Pairing: Germany, represented by brothers Daniele and Gabrielle Tortomsi, chef and sommelier of the Ackermannshof* & Mandarin Oriental Savoy restaurant, who presented the jury with a menu in which grapes were the main ingredient of all the dishes.
Copa Jerez is once again consolidating its position as one of the most important gastronomic events, not only at a national level but also in every corner of the world, where the pairing of sherry wines reaches an unprecedented dimension. The winners, representatives of the restaurant Parsley Salón, say: "The contest has become a necessary appointment in the gastronomic panorama, so we are very proud to represent Denmark from Spain, a country where gastronomy plays a very important role. We have noticed a great evolution in this contest and also how the wine and gastronomy sector have worked to make sherry evolve and position itself as the great wine it is in its own right".