A University Challenge-type contest on Bordeaux wines has been won by EDHEC Lille, who triumphed over stiff competition from Chicago Business School, Copenhagen Business School, Centrale Lille and Oxford University, among others.

The Left Bank Cup, sponsored for the first time by Decanter.com, is a Bordeaux wine tasting competition held at Chateau Lafite Rothschild. EDHEC Lille, one of two participating business schools from the city, brought the trophy back home to France, after stiff international competition kept it out of the country over the past few years.

Lille Centrale, the other competing French team, finished fourth. With two out of the top five teams coming from France, they may feel like they have laid some ghosts to rest after a poor performance last year, where its teams were placed seventh and eighth.

"We were determined to redeem France’s reputation," Jean-Sebastien Philippe of EDHEC told Decanter.com.

Mr Philippe is quite the collector, with a 500-bottle wine cellar which he maintains at the same time as studying business at LVMH. His two teammates, Marianne Fisch and Pauline Paponneau, are also spending part of their business course working in wine and spirits companies.

The teams efforts were rewarded with double magnums each of Lafite Rothschild 2001, amongst other prizes. In a University Challenge-type tournament, the teams competed in three rounds of questions; one theory paper about the Left Bank wines of Bordeaux, and two rounds of tasting, one on red wines and one on sweet whites.

EDHEC Lille came out on top, with Chicago Business School taking second place and  Copenhagen Business School in third.  Centrale Lille, City U Hong Kong, Wharton Business School, Oxford University and Jiao Tong University completed the winning order.

Lafite owner Baron Eric de Rothschild said: "It is my great pleasure to gather all these teams together, and to celebrate the pleasure that Bordeaux wine can bring. Everybody has shown an incredibly good knowledge of the wines, and I hope will leave with happy memories of what good wine should be about."