Raúl Miguel Revilla (Madrid, 46 years old), head sommelier at Zalacaín, was awarded this Tuesday the National Gastronomy Award for Best Sommelier. An award with which the institution’s jury “recognizes his impeccable career, his extensive knowledge of the world of wine and his know-how at the helm of a legendary winery like Zalacaín”, where he began working as an apprentice at the age of 22 .
“Whenever you are given an award that recognizes your work, you feel honored and grateful for it, and it always helps to have more encouragement. This is long overdue because in our union it is difficult to find people to work and sometimes we are in trouble. Maybe it is commonplace in all professions, but for us it has been noticed in recent years,” Revilla told EL PAÍS by phone, hours after learning of the recognition.
Raúl Miguel Revilla in Zalacaín, in a picture from the Royal Academy of Gastronomy.
The manager of the Zalacaín winery has developed his entire career in the emblematic Madrid restaurant, which in the 1980s was the first establishment in Spain to receive three Michelin stars and was the epicenter of the country’s social and political life. There he was the right hand of a master of his craft, Custodio López Zamarra, whose successor he became and reached the position of head sommelier, a position he still holds today. “I thank him for everything he taught me. Thanks to him, I was able to learn,” he says of his “teacher,” as he calls him, from whom he learned for 13 years until Zamarra retired. From the experience of someone who has seen the profession evolve over more than 20 years, Revilla confirms the importance of the figure of the sommelier and asks that his presence in the rooms and his work at the helm of the wineries “not be ignored lose”. .
The jury that made the decision was led by the winner of the National Gastronomy Award, María José Huertas, and consisted of Lourdes Plana Bellido, President of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy, José María Sanz-Magallón, Secretary General of the Royal Academy, of the National Awards Cristina Díaz, Valerio Carrera and Custodio Zamarra, as well as academics María Isabel Mijares, Miguel Garrido, Juan Manuel Bellver and Ana Laguna.
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The recognition announced this Tuesday is not the first that Revilla has received throughout his career. In 2018 he won the title of Best Sommelier of the Community of Madrid, organized by the Madrid Sommeliers Association. Most recently, in 2020, the International Academy of Gastronomy awarded him the “Best Sommelier” award.
Revilla’s is not the first 2023 National Gastronomy Awards announced so far. Last July, the Royal Academy of Gastronomy announced Amaya Cervera as the winner of the Communication Prize. An award given to the EL PAÍS employee because she is “a great disseminator and connoisseur of wine culture, a virtuous expert in communication and in recognizing wine in all its meanings,” said the president of the jury, Mikel Zeberio. Days later, chef Hilario Arbelaitz, a master chef for 53 years, was honored with the new National Gastronomy Lifetime Award. The 2023 National Gastronomy Awards Gala will take place on October 3 at the Museum of the Reina Sofía National Art Center.