The 27-year-old who has entered the competition five times before, said winning bought a 'huge sense of relief and pride'.
"You can't imagine how much it means to me to get it finally," he said. "It brings a major sense of achievement and pride, but also relief as I've come second and third before, so it is great to finally win."
Tasks
Robert was one of 15 semi-finalists to make it through to the competition, held by the Academy of Food and Wine Service (AFWS). After completing a series of high-level tasks set by chief judge Gerard Basset, judges chose three sommeliers to compete in the final.
Robert narrowly beat Tobias Brauweiler of The Ritz and Kathrine Larsen of Zuma to the title after successfully completing tasks, which included identifying errors on a wine list, a blind tasting, an exercise in good service and food and wine matching and the Moet & Chandon perfect Champagne pour where finalists must pour a magnum of Champagne equally into 16 glasses.
Following the completion of the tasks, judges Basset, sommelier Ronan Sayburn, Caterer & Hotelkeeper editor Mark Lewis, Moet Hennesy's Joseph Rorke and The Observer wine correspondent David Williams decided on their winner.
Basset told BigHospitality the standard of the competition was improving year on year with the quality of entries showing that more and more businesses were seeing the benefits of promoting good wine service.
“The competition this year was incredibly close but Clement’s Champagne pour won it for him. It was a confident performance from a very knowledgeable, competent sommelier who set a high standard all round,” he said.
Robert receives a trip to Maison Moët & Chandon to taste the Grand Vintage collections with chef de cave Benoît Gouez and a hand-crafted and engraved silver Jeroboam of Moët & Chandon as well as a Reidel Tyrol decanter and Reidel Vinum glasses; a magnum of 2009 Domaine Boutinot la Cote Sauvage Cairanne and a trip to Domaine Boutinot in France's Southern Rhone valley. He will also go on to compete for a place in the European Sommelier competition.
Runners up Brauweiler and Larsen, who came second and third respectively, win an engraved magnum of Moet & Chandon Imperial NV and an engraved Reidel O decanter with Vinum glasses.