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Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus Announces the Best Young Sommelier Competition – Asia Edition 2025 to showcase the talent of aspiring sommeliers across 10 regions in Asia
Nurturing The Future of The Sommelier Community
Dedicated to nurturing the next generation of wine professionals, the competition provides a platform for young sommeliers aged 18 to 30 to demonstrate their expertise and passion. Candidates will progress through three rigorous stages: preliminary selection, semi-finals, and finals. This year competition is particularly honored to have a distinguished judging panel of 8 renowned wine experts presiding over the semi-finals and finals.
Competition Timeline and Structure
The preliminary selection round has successfully concluded across regions in March and April, indentifiying the top 10 young talents who will be representing their nations in the semi-final and final rounds, taking place in Vietnam from May 20th to 21st, 2025, at Mai House hotel in Ho Chi Minh City.

The preliminary round was notably supported by the esteemed local sommelier associations: the Hong Kong Sommelier Association, the Sommelier Association of Malaysia, the Sommelier Association of Singapore, the Taiwan Sommelier Association and the Indonesia Sommelier Association, to organize the selections in their respective regions.
On May 20th, the semi-finalists will participate in a private event featuring a thorough written examination and educational workshops to assess and elevate their knowledge and skills. The top three performers will proceed to the public final on May 21st. This final round will be a dynamic public showcase where finalists will demonstrate their expertise through live performances judged on wine region knowledge, sensory analysis, food pairing, and service technique.
The winner will receive a special prize package: a five-day immersive experience in Bordeaux, exploring the prestigious Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus estates; a Château Montlabert gift box; and a bottle of Château Beychevelle. The winning association will also be awarded a case of Castel wines and an exclusive online masterclass.
A Commitment to the Asian Sommelier Community
“We are thrilled to host the Best Young Sommelier Competition – Asia Edition 2025, bringing together talented young sommeliers from across the region” stated Mrs. Stephanie Voy, APAC Senior Marketing Manager at Castel Châteaux & Grands Crus. “This initiative underscores our commitment to fostering strong connections within the Asian sommelier community and empowering the next generation of wine professionals. We aim to provide an enriching and unforgettable experience, offering valuable knowledge, insights into Bordeaux wines, and unparalleled networking opportunities for the candidates.”Hashtag: #BestYoungSommelier
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Castel Châteaux & Grand Crus
Castel’s Family Estates have traditionally been based in the Bordeaux region, although the family have made acquisitions in 3 other major French winemaking areas: the Loire, the Languedoc and Provence. This means that the family can offer a range of red, white, and rosé wines built around 11 AOCs and 1 PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) area. This collection is made up with more than 60 exclusive wines from the 20 Family Estates.
These Great Wines’ standards are extremely high, inspired and upheld by the family’s commitment to excellence. Teams of experts are constantly at work to ensure that the products capture the quintessence of each one of these terroirs, hand-picked by the Castel family. One of the fundamental values close to the heart of the business as a whole is the preservation of the terroirs, reflected in Castel Estates and Vineyards’ growing commitment to sustainability. To date, 1000 hectares of vineyard are either Terra Vitis accredited or certified organic.
For more information about Castel Châteaux & Grand Crus, please visit:
https://www.chateaux-castel.com/ or
https://www.instagram.com/chateauxdomainescastel/
About Apron Fine Wines & Spirits and Celliers d’Asie Vietnam
Red Apron Fine Wines & Spirits and Celliers d’Asie Vietnam proudly serve as the official platinum sponsors for the competition, demonstrating their shared commitment to empowering the next generation of sommelier talent across Asia.
Red Apron Fine Wines and Spirits is a leading wine company in Vietnam, offers over 3,000 wine and spirit selections, including renowned brands, estates, and chateaux, along with premium accessories. With 16 stores nationwide, they consistently aim to provide the finest wine experiences.
Celliers d’Asie Vietnam is a leading wine importer and distributor in Vietnam and serves as the direct supplier for Red Apron Fine Wines & Spirits. Their sophisticated selection and premium accessories make them a comprehensive resource for wine enthusiasts, contributing to Vietnam’s evolving wine culture.
About Lucaris
Lucaris is a world-renowned premium crystal glassware brand produced in Thailand, joining this year’s competition as the official glassware sponsor.
With world class quality and design, inspired by modern Asian cities lifestyle, Lucaris evokes the wining senses, enabling the wine to develop its full aromas and tastes, and creates an emerging paradigm in the art of pairing wines with modern Asian Cuisine.
About KadeKa
As the official wine chiller sponsor for the competition, KadeKa represents quality and innovation in wine preservation. Established in 1998, KadeKa revolutionized Singapore’s wine chiller industry by introducing the first-ever 30-bottle wine chiller, catering to the evolving needs of a burgeoning wine-drinking community. With continual effort, KadeKa expands its product line, aiming for seamless home integration and an elevated lifestyle.
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Woodfibre LNG Marks 2025 as a Year of Construction Progress, Environmental Stewardship and Community Partnership
Over the past year, the project advanced from planning into visible, on-the-ground execution. Major construction milestones included the pouring of foundations for key modules, continued progress on marine piling, and further implementation of modular construction techniques designed to reduce on-site footprint while accelerating delivery timelines.
These advancements were achieved through close collaboration with project partners, suppliers and contractors, and in partnership with the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation).
In 2025, Woodfibre LNG, a member of the RGE group of companies founded by Sukanto Tanoto, continued to operate its floatel workforce accommodation solution, designed to minimise pressure on local housing and community services. As of November, two floatels were in active operation, providing high-quality, safe and comfortable living conditions for the project workforce while supporting construction efficiency.
Environmental protection remained a central focus throughout the year. The project’s Marine Mammal Monitoring Programme, which includes hydroacoustic monitoring, exclusion zones and shore-based observation posts, delivered measurable outcomes by enabling real-time operational decisions, including pauses to marine activities when marine mammals entered exclusion areas.
In parallel, remediation of legacy materials from the former pulp mill site continued, with hundreds of thousands of tonnes of historical waste removed. These efforts have contributed to improving site conditions for both local communities and marine and terrestrial ecosystems in Howe Sound.
Woodfibre LNG’s Operator Training Programme, delivered in partnership with the Squamish Nation Training and Trades Centre and the British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT), progressed throughout the year. The programme’s first cohort of graduates transitioned into full-time roles, supporting the development of long-term, skilled local employment opportunities linked to the project.
Through its Community Partnership Programme (CPP), Woodfibre LNG continued to invest in local communities across the Sea-to-Sky corridor. In 2025, the programme surpassed $1 million in total grants since its inception, supporting initiatives in sports, healthcare, emergency services, arts and culture, and youth development.
Luke Schauerte, CEO of Woodfibre LNG, said, “2025 has been a year of significant progress for Woodfibre LNG. We are proud of what our team and partners have accomplished together and look forward to building on this momentum in the year ahead.”
With more than half of the project’s development now complete, Woodfibre LNG remains focused on advancing construction safely and responsibly, while maintaining strong partnerships with Indigenous communities, local stakeholders and regulators.
As the project looks ahead to 2026, Woodfibre LNG continues its work toward delivering lower-carbon, responsibly produced Canadian energy to international markets.
Hashtag: #RGE #PacificEnergy #PacificCanbriamEnergy #WoodfibreLNG #LNG #environment #partnerships #LNG #liquefiednaturalgas #energy #sustainability
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
About Woodfibre LNG
The Woodfibre LNG Project is owned by Woodfibre LNG Limited Partnership, owned 70 per cent by Pacific Energy Corporation (Canada) Limited and 30 per cent by Enbridge Inc. The Woodfibre LNG facility is being built on the site of the former Woodfibre pulp mill site, which is located about seven kilometres southwest of Squamish, B.C. Woodfibre LNG will source its natural gas from Pacific Canbriam Energy, a Canadian company with operations in Northeastern British Columbia. Pacific Canbriam is an industry leader in sustainable natural gas production. Woodfibre LNG and Pacific Canbriam Energy are subsidiaries of Pacific Energy Corporation Limited. Woodfibre LNG is the first industrial project in Canada to recognise a non-treaty Indigenous government, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), as a full environmental regulator.
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New Opportunities in Southeast Asia’s Digital Shift: Thailand Emerges as the New ASEAN’s AI Hub
The expansion of AI and data centers (DCs) in Thailand is driving several transformative trends:
- Changing data traffic patterns. As DCs multiply in Bangkok, Chonburi, and beyond, Thailand is evolving from a traditional data “transit point” into a regional “convergence hub.” East-west digital traffic is accelerating, with Thai DC clusters increasingly meeting the computing demands of Southeast Asia and the broader Asia-Pacific.
- Optimized data routing. Data flows that once relied on submarine cables via Hong Kong and Singapore are gradually shifting to land-based digital corridors linking China, Laos, and Thailand. This route reduces data transmission latency from southwestern China to Southeast Asia.
- Elevated business expectations. Demand is shifting beyond “sufficient bandwidth” toward “high-quality experience.” Thailand sits in a “latency sweet spot” for key Asia-Pacific markets, with latencies to Singapore, Vietnam, and Malaysia falling within an optimal range—a crucial advantage for latency-sensitive sectors like autonomous driving, telemedicine, and fintech.
New opportunities inevitably bring new challenges, and Thailand also addresses the following three challenges:
1. Massive traffic impacting existing networks: Compared with mature hubs like Singapore, Thailand has insufficient international submarine cables. A large volume of cross-border data still needs to be transmitted through detours. Meanwhile, as DC investments continue to accelerate, traffic will keep rising. Analysis shows that by 2029, Thailand’s DC capacity may reach 2000 MW, with cross-region traffic surging to 630 Tbps. The current network architecture is no longer capable of supporting such heavy traffic.
2. Latency advantages not fully realized: Despite its geographic advantages, Thailand’s network latency performance has yet to reach its full potential. Routes to key markets, like China, still require third-party transit. What’s more, traditional network scheduling lacks intelligent route selection capabilities, making it difficult to provide deterministic assurance for latency-sensitive services like financial transactions and real-time AI interactions.
3. Potential risks in network reliability: Thailand’s network reliability faces structural challenges. Single points of failure have previously caused hours-long interruptions to critical services, directly undermining enterprise users’ confidence.
To overcome these challenges, Thailand can take a systematic approach to upgrading its digital infrastructure, aiming to build next-generation AI-ready networks.
1. Building ultra-high-bandwidth “sea-land” connectivity. By actively introducing new submarine cables, Thailand can significantly enhance its connectivity with the Asia-Pacific region and the world. Meanwhile, accelerating the construction and expansion of key terrestrial cable routes—such as China-Laos-Thailand and Thailand-Malaysia-Singapore—will transform Thailand’s geographic advantage into a tangible connectivity advantage.
2. Optimizing network routes to create a regional low-latency core. Strengthening the Kunming-Laos-Thailand terrestrial cable route will continuously reduce transmission latency between China and Thailand, meeting the needs of real-time applications. In addition, the introduction of autonomous networks will enable automatic selection of the optimal, shortest route, shifting from “best effort” to “deterministic low latency.”
3. Designing a “never-interrupted” high-resilience architecture. Deploying active-active DC networks with millisecond-level switchover capabilities ensures the continuity of core services. Meanwhile, AI-driven intelligent O&M can reduce fault detection and diagnosis from hours to minutes.
Thailand’s booming AI and DC industries are driving rapid growth in regional and cross-border business demand. In this trend, network infrastructure construction centered on DCs is the core engine that drives AI transformation, propelling Thailand toward its vision of becoming the new AI hub for ASEAN.
Hashtag: #huawei
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
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MyRepublic Launches Card Sub, Singapore’s First Subscription Service for Trading Card Game Fans

Hashtag: #CardSub, #MyRepublic #MyRepublicCardSub #CardSubSG #TCG #GeeksUseUs
https://myrepublic.net/sg/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/myrepublic
https://x.com/myrepublic
https://www.facebook.com/MyRepublicSG/
https://www.instagram.com/myrepublicsg/
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
MyRepublic
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