Norway’s Nikolai Haram Svorte, winner of the Chaîne’s 2021 International Final of the Jeunes Sommeliers Competition held in Lyon, France, was named the ASI World’s Best Sommelier at the 2026 Final held yesterday, Friday, October 16th, in Lisbon, Portugal.

Nikolai has been Sommelier Champion of Norway from 2023 to 2026 and Best Sommelier of the Nordic countries in 2025.

He works as a sales and product manager specializing in champagne at Remuage by Moestue in Oslo and formerly served as Head Sommelier at Speilsalen in the Britannia Hotel in Trondheim.

Pascaline Lepeltier from France was the Runner-up and in Third Place was Wataru Iwata from Japan.

Twenty competitors had entered the Semi-final on Thursday 15th. The final on the following day lasted more than four hours. Each candidate had to complete 11 tasks from set-up through to table service, including blind tasting, label analysis carried out by AI and full of errors, food-and-wine pairings, but also the recognition of wine estates through their works of art!

Prepared by a Chaîne News Online Staff Writer. E&OE