Cambridge University and Copenhagen Business School have progressed to the final of this year's Left Bank Bordeaux Cup having won their places at the European semi-finals over the weekend.
Cambridge and Copenhagan progress to Left Bank Bordeaux Cup final
The two teams, representing the UK and Denmark, saw off rivals from Oxford University, St Andrews University and Nyenrode Business University from the Netherlands to claim their place in this year’s final.
The competition, open to leading leading business schools and higher education establishments and universities around the world and organised by the Commanderie du Bontemps, saw the teams go head-to-head in the semi-finals held at The Connaught Hotel on Saturday evening.
Each team had to answer a series of 10 multiple choice questions, followed by a blind wine tasting test of six red wines and three sweet wines in which they had to list in the correct order three wines from the youngest to the oldest, specify appellations and vintage plus identify wines from the same chateau.
For the first time in the competition’s 13 year history, teams had to answer a further two multiple choice questions after the blind tasting to decide second place, which had been a tie between Oxford and Cambridge.
Speaking before the winners were announced, Emmanuelle Cruse, Grand Maitre de la Commanderie Du Bomtemps congratulated all of the teams that took part in the competition that he said is ‘becoming more and more difficult at a very professional level’.
Cruse praised ‘the high quality’ of the competitors in what he described as a very ‘tense semi-final’ with the teams ‘all very close at the end’.
In first place and representing Copenhagen was Peter Buch Hansen, Christian Mark L Mortensen and Asbiorn May and for Cambridge was Vaiva Imbrasaite, Ellie JY Kim and David Beall.
A series of preliminary selections were held earlier this year in New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, London and Paris to decide the semi-finalists of which six out of the final eight have now been chosen.
Joining Cambridge and Copenhagen who will be representing the non-French teams in the final, will be Yale Law School and Wharton representing North America and HKU Space and Chongqing University representing Asia.
The two teams representing France will be decided in a semi-final heat on Wednesday 22 May at Dauphine University in Paris.
The final of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup will be chaired by Baron Eric de Rothschild and held at Château Lafite Rothschild, in Pauillac, on Friday June 14th, for opening of Vinexpo Bordeaux.
See the pictures from the London semi-final here.
