Xavier Thuizat, crowned Best Sommelier of France 2022 and Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2023, returns to The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort to lead its annual Oenology Week from August 3 to 7, 2026. In South Africa, Aljoe Mario Beziek earned the 2026 Best Young Sommelier title. In Edinburgh, John Munro moved from Senior Sous Chef to Head Chef at Number One at The Balmoral after three years shaping the restaurant's direction under Executive Chef Paul Hart. The week's stories trace the paths sommeliers and chefs take from competition floors and sous stations to the roles that define their next decade.
What We Published This Week
Xavier Thuizat Returns to The St. Regis Bora Bora
Xavier Thuizat, one of France's most distinguished sommeliers, returns to The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort to lead Oenology Week, a five-day celebration of fine wines running August 3 through 7, 2026. Thuizat holds the titles Best Sommelier of France 2022, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2023, and the 2024 Michelin Guide Sommelier Award. After nine years at Hôtel de Crillon in Paris, he now serves as Air France's Head Sommelier and opened his first wine bar, Grappille, in Paris in 2025.
The week includes guided tastings, a masterclass, a wine pairing dinner at the resort's fine dining restaurant Lagoon, and other dining experiences. General Manager Emmanuel Richardet stated, "Oenology Week reflects The St. Regis' commitment to creating unique, memorable experiences that celebrate the finest expressions of gastronomy, wine and luxury hospitality." Participation is limited to ensure intimate, interactive sessions. Guests may reserve individual events to curate their own wine journey throughout the week. Advance booking is recommended.
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort is recognized as one of French Polynesia's premier gastronomic destinations. Oenology Week continues the property's tradition of hosting food and wine events that draw guests beyond the lagoon and overwater bungalows. The resort's award-winning culinary team pairs each wine with dishes designed to enhance the tasting experience, elevating the week beyond a series of tastings into a full gastronomic program.
The Oenology Week Format
The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort structures Oenology Week as a series of individual bookable events rather than a single package. Guests can attend one tasting, the masterclass, the Lagoon pairing dinner, or all five days depending on their schedule and interest. The format allows travelers already at the resort to add a wine experience without committing to a full week, while serious collectors can build a deeper itinerary around Thuizat's presence.
The modular structure reflects a shift in how luxury resorts approach wine programming. A fixed five-day package assumes guests arrive specifically for the wine event and plan their entire stay around it. Individual bookable sessions acknowledge that many guests discover the event after arrival, or want to balance wine education with other resort activities. The format also accommodates guests who may have deep knowledge of one region but want to explore another, allowing them to skip sessions that cover familiar ground and focus on new territory.
Each event is designed for both seasoned wine enthusiasts and curious explorers. The masterclass format typically involves a structured tasting led by the sommelier, with time for questions and discussion about the wines' origins, production methods, and ideal serving conditions. The Lagoon pairing dinner places wine in conversation with the resort's culinary team, showing how a sommelier's selections can elevate a meal when the kitchen and the cellar work in tandem.
The resort recommends booking in advance due to limited participation slots. That constraint is not artificial scarcity; it reflects the reality that a sommelier can only guide a certain number of guests through a tasting before the session loses its interactive character. A masterclass with eight guests allows for individual attention and detailed answers. A masterclass with thirty guests becomes a lecture. The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort has chosen the former.
Thuizat's Career Path
Xavier Thuizat spent nine years at Hôtel de Crillon in Paris before moving to Air France as Head Sommelier. The Crillon years placed him in one of the city's most visible luxury hotel dining rooms, where sommeliers work with guests who expect both depth of knowledge and the ability to guide a pairing without overstepping the table's rhythm. The Air France role extends that work into a different context: selecting wines for long-haul flights, training cabin crew, and managing a cellar that moves across time zones.
In 2025, Thuizat opened Grappille, his first wine bar in Paris. The move from hotel sommelier to wine bar owner follows a pattern seen across the sommelier profession: years of service in formal dining rooms, then a space where the sommelier sets the list, the pace, and the conversation. Grappille gives Thuizat a room where he can pour what he wants to pour and teach the way he wants to teach, without the constraints of a hotel's broader guest profile.
The combination of titles Thuizat holds, Best Sommelier of France 2022, Meilleur Ouvrier de France 2023, and the 2024 Michelin Guide Sommelier Award, represents three different forms of recognition. Best Sommelier of France is a competition title, earned through blind tasting, service demonstrations, and written exams.
Meilleur Ouvrier de France is a state-awarded distinction recognizing exceptional craftsmanship across trades, from pastry to metalwork to wine service. The Michelin Guide Sommelier Award recognizes a sommelier's contribution to the dining experience at a specific restaurant or establishment.
Together, the three titles signal that Thuizat has been tested by his peers, recognized by the state, and acknowledged by the guide that shapes fine dining's public reputation.
Thuizat's return to The St. Regis Bora Bora Resort for Oenology Week suggests the event has become a recurring engagement. The resort's announcement describes this as another edition of the annual gastronomic celebration, indicating that Thuizat has led the program in previous years.
For a sommelier of his standing, the decision to return to the same resort year after year reflects either a strong relationship with the property or a belief that the format and the audience justify the time away from Paris.
The combination of his Air France role, his Paris wine bar, and his annual return to Bora Bora maps a career built on teaching wine across contexts: the cabin, the bar, the resort masterclass.
Aljoe Mario Beziek Takes South Africa's Best Young Sommelier Title
Aljoe Mario Beziek earned the title of Best Young Sommelier for 2026 in South Africa. The announcement marks the latest in the country's annual sommelier competition, which identifies emerging talent in wine service and education. South Africa's sommelier competitions have historically served as a pipeline into international competitions and into senior sommelier roles at the country's top restaurants and wine estates.
The Best Young Sommelier title typically goes to a candidate under 30 who demonstrates technical skill in blind tasting, service, and wine knowledge across regions and styles. Winners often move into head sommelier positions within a few years of the title, or into wine education and judging roles. The competition format tests candidates on their ability to identify wines blind, recommend pairings, and manage service under pressure.
South Africa's wine industry has produced a generation of sommeliers who compete internationally and bring global wine knowledge back to the country's restaurants and estates. The Best Young Sommelier competition serves as a proving ground for that generation, identifying candidates who can represent South African wine service on larger stages. For Beziek, the 2026 title places him within a lineage of past winners who have gone on to shape the country's wine culture through their work at restaurants, wine farms, and educational institutions.
What the Title Means for a Sommelier's Career
A Best Young Sommelier title changes the trajectory of a wine professional's career in practical ways. It opens doors to positions at restaurants and hotels that require a sommelier with competition credentials. It places the winner in a network of past titleholders, judges, and mentors who can recommend them for roles or invite them to judge future competitions. It signals to employers that the sommelier has invested the time to study beyond the floor, to taste systematically, and to perform under scrutiny.
For Beziek, the 2026 title positions him within South Africa's wine industry at a moment when the country's sommeliers are gaining visibility on international competition stages. The title also serves as a marker for wine producers and importers looking for sommeliers to represent their brands at tastings, dinners, and trade events. The next step for many Best Young Sommelier winners is either a move to a larger restaurant or hotel, or entry into regional and international sommelier competitions.
Competition titles also carry weight in wine education. Sommeliers who have competed at a high level often move into teaching roles, training the next generation of candidates. They understand the format, the pressure, and the level of preparation required to succeed.
They can guide students through blind tasting practice, service drills, and the written exams that test knowledge of wine law, viticulture, and regional history.
For a young sommelier like Beziek, the 2026 title opens the door to that kind of teaching work, either through formal wine education programs or through mentorship within the restaurants and estates where he works. The title is not the end of the apprenticeship; it is the credential that allows the apprentice to begin teaching others.
John Munro Steps Up at Number One
The Balmoral in Edinburgh has appointed John Munro as Head Chef at Number One, the hotel's fine dining restaurant. Munro served as Senior Sous Chef since 2022, spending three years shaping the restaurant's culinary direction alongside Executive Chef Paul Hart. His leadership will continue to build on Number One's identity through a refined, ingredient-led approach rooted in nature, locality, and seasonality. The appointment marks a new chapter for the restaurant.
Munro's promotion follows a common path in fine dining kitchens: years as sous chef, learning the station rhythms and the chef's expectations, then the step up to head chef when the kitchen needs someone who already knows the suppliers, the team, and the standards. Three years as Senior Sous Chef gave Munro time to develop relationships with Scotland's farmers, fishermen, and foragers, and to understand how Number One's menu reflects the seasons and the region.
The Senior Sous Chef role at a restaurant like Number One involves more than station management. It requires the ability to step in when the head chef is absent, to train junior cooks, to manage supplier relationships, and to contribute to menu development.
Munro's three years in that role suggest he has already been operating at a head chef level in many respects, making the formal promotion a recognition of work he has been doing rather than a sudden leap in responsibility.
The three-year duration matters: it is long enough to see multiple seasonal cycles, to build trust with suppliers, and to train the cooks who will execute the next menu.
What Comes Next at Number One
John Munro's appointment as Head Chef at Number One signals continuity rather than reinvention. The restaurant's identity is already established: ingredient-led, seasonal, rooted in Scottish produce and technique. Munro's role is to evolve that identity without abandoning what makes Number One recognizable to guests who return year after year. That balance requires a chef who knows the kitchen's history and has the confidence to adjust the menu when the season or the market demands it.
The Balmoral's announcement emphasizes Munro's commitment to nature, locality, and seasonality, three terms that describe both a sourcing philosophy and a cooking discipline. Nature means working with what the land and water provide, not forcing ingredients into dishes they do not belong in. Locality means knowing the producers by name and understanding the conditions that shape their work. Seasonality means the menu changes when the ingredients change, not on a fixed calendar. Munro's three years as Senior Sous Chef gave him the time to build those relationships and to understand how they translate into the dishes that leave the pass.
For diners who follow Edinburgh's fine dining scene, Munro's promotion is a signal that Number One will continue to operate at the level it has maintained under Paul Hart's leadership. For cooks who watch kitchen promotions, it is a reminder that the path from sous chef to head chef still runs through years of station work, supplier relationships, and the ability to lead a team through service after service. Watch for Munro's first seasonal menu changes in the months ahead.
The appointment also reflects The Balmoral's approach to kitchen leadership. Rather than bringing in an outside chef to reinvent the restaurant, the hotel promoted from within, choosing a chef who has spent three years learning the kitchen's rhythms and building the relationships that make Number One's sourcing philosophy possible. That decision suggests confidence in the restaurant's current direction and a belief that the next chapter should be written by someone who has already been writing it.
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