Team Member #2 – Asbjørn May

Who are you?

Asbjørn May, 26 years old, and I study B.Sc. Business Administration and Service Management.

I am part of the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup team going to London in May.

Describe your motivation to become part of the CBS Wine competition team?

Competing is fun, wine is fun and competing in wine is fun squared.

I have some experience in competitive wine tasting from before I started my education at CBS, and once we at CBS Wine seized the opportunity to take part I was ready to take part right from the start.

What is your field of expertise in the competition?

I have a quite broad experience in wine, and when it comes to tasting, my references are strong within more or less the entire world. I have also spent time studying winemaking and visited countless vineyards making my technical knowledge quite strong.

How do you evaluate the strength of CBS Wine in the competition?

In a competition as difficult as the Left Bank Bordeaux Cup, any team that qualifies for the finals is very strong – in tasting skills as well as theory. I feel that we are strong team this year, and we have the experience and references from the 2012 LBBC to improve on our third place at the finals.

What are your expectations of the competing schools? Anyone to look out for?

Well, I guess the Oxford team had something to answer for when the returned without a trophy last year, so I would expect them to come to London/Bordeaux as prepared as ever. In my opinion however, the nature of competitive wine tasting doesn’t really call for looking to much at your competitors. I prefer to look for strengths and weaknesses at my own team to be as ready as possible for the competitions. Wine tasting is rarely a contact sport after all.

Best wine experience ever?

There are many, but as a I’m sitting in Germany as I write this, I’m thinking a few years back to an extremely agreeable visit at Egon Muller in the Moselle a few years back, where we, seated in his private residence was treated to Cuban cigars and old riesling. Every time we emptied a bottle he opened an older one…

What is your personal preference within the world of wine?

I simply can’t answer that in singularis. What constantly astonishes me in the world of wine is the vast diversity of different wines that exists, and that there is a wine for every situation. Obviously I favor some wines and these include: German Riesling, Champagne, Burgundy, Sherry, Piedmonts, mature Bordeaux, cool North American Pinot, Port, Rhones, Loire etc. Really, it is very difficult to mention one and leaving out a lot. What is most important to me is whether they have some sense of origin and are pleasant to drink. I practically never enjoy wines that are just polished alcoholic fruit punch that could be made anywhere.

What advice would you give a young person who really wants to learn more about wine?

Taste, taste, taste, taste, drink. Try to taste as many wines as possible but don’t overdo it. The world of wine should be a warm and cozy place, rather than a scientific lab, give yourself time to absorb the sensations and experiences that come when you open that right bottle at the right time in the right company. For the same reason I’m not a big fan of reducing wine to a simple score or any number of stars or whatever and this leads me to the essence of this advice: Allow yourself to form your own opinions, be ready to fight for them and be ready to change them if it happens that you as a wine drinker evolve, or that the wine world evolves around you.