Fifty of the world’s best sommeliers completed their tour of Australia as part of Wine Australia’s Somms of the World program last week, heading back to their home countries with a deeper understanding and appreciation of the local wine landscape.

Travelling from the best restaurants and bars in the UK, US, Thailand, Japan, Spain, China, Korea, Singapore, New Zealand and Australia, the sommeliers were invited to learn about Australia’s wine regions, discover the breadth of Australian wine and meet the winemakers.

The program started in Sydney with a master class introducing the history, evolution and revolution of Australian wine at Quay Restaurant. The group then travelled to Melbourne for the World’s 50 Best Restaurant awards, tastings and day trips to Victorian wine regions. They also selected an interstate trip to visit wine regions in South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and ACT.

The sommeliers tasted more than 2600 bottles of wine from 42 regions during their visit to Australia.

Andreas Clark, CEO of Wine Australia said, “Experiencing the regions, the culture and building a connection with winemakers is so important for sommeliers who are selling the stories behind the wine in their restaurants. We have received fantastic feedback from the sommeliers already, with many saying they’ve never had so much exposure to so many different wines and regions on a visit. We hope this converts to a greater presence and more diversity of Australian wine in their restaurants.”

Seamus Sharkey, Head Sommelier at The Ledbury in London said, “I am already thinking about how I can bring in some producers that I tried in Australia which aren’t currently represented in the UK off the back of this trip.”

See what the sommeliers got up to in Australia in the video below.