December 1, 2020 – Due to the poor epidemiological situation in the country, the Croatian Sommelier's Club reported that the final of the 24th Croatian Sommelier Championship is postponed.
Precisely because of the worsening situation with the pandemic, the Croatian Sommelier Championship was planned to be held in two parts. In the first, quarterfinal part, which took place on November 10, 2020, the 12 best Croatian sommeliers were chosen to compete in the second, final part of the competition on December 7, 2020. However, the second part of the championship was postponed until the epidemiological situation normalizes.
"Unfortunately, due to the increasingly complicated epidemiological situation, we are forced to postpone the semifinals and finals of the 24th Croatian Sommelier Championship, a competition we planned to hold on Monday, December 7, at the Westin Hotel in Zagreb.
Since November 13, when we published the list of twelve semifinalists of this year's Championship, the epidemiological situation in our country is becoming more complicated, with more and more infected every day and the recommendations and decisions of the Civil Protection Headquarters are more stringent and restrictive.
Today, a week before the finals, the situation is no better. For these reasons, we believe that, at this time, it would be extremely risky to organize the finals of the Championship wherein one place there would be twelve semifinalists, nine judges, and seven organizers and technical staff.
Besides, such a gathering would violate several recommendations of the National Civil Protection Headquarters and, most importantly, it would endanger the health of our members.
Therefore, the 24th Croatian Sommelier Championship (semifinals and finals) will continue as soon as the epidemiological situation normalizes," reads the statement from the Croatian Sommelier's Club official page.
Despite the not so great situation, 24 candidates applied for the 24th Croatian Sommelier Championship, which is being held under the sponsorship of the Croatian Tourist Board. The 12 best sommeliers were chosen, and they are in order: Siniša Lasan, Filip Božić, Ivan Jug, Tomislav Mikinac, Josip Orišković, Marko Škarica, Mate Negulić, Miljenko Čehulić, Monika Neral, Toni Arbunić, Zoran Gregorović, and Ivan Dušić.
"We did not expect it and we were positive until the very end. We don't know how long this postponement will last, but our 12 semifinalists will certainly get a little more time to prepare for the continuation of the fight," they added on Facebook.
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