There is something disarming about talking to Mathias Thorstein Breinholt. He is open, relaxed and quick to laugh — the kind of person who makes a conversation feel like catching up with an old friend. But ask him about competitions, and something shifts. The focus sharpens, and the tone changes. “When I’m in a competition, I’m a different person,” he says. “My mindset just shifts completely. It’s not something people are used to seeing from me.” 

After 17 years at Bistro Boheme, Christian ‘Cuba’ Gustafsson Cazón has built one of Denmark’s most decorated wine lists — and a team that finishes his stories for him. Ask him about any of it, and he would rather talk about the guest, the next generation, and his four children. 

At 22, Teigh Crowley is head sommelier at one of Copenhagen's most anticipated restaurants. He fell for wine as a teenager and never quite recovered. Ask him what a sommelier actually does, and he reaches for the cinema: that particular magic of sitting down, leaning back, and letting the world outside disappear for a few hours. Wine helps – or an amazake - if the dish calls for it. The rest is just keeping an open heart. And very good listening.