Taro Kurobe’s interest in wine developed just after high school, when he had the chance to study in Italy.

Avocation became vocation, and last week Kurobe, 29, won Hawaii’s Young Sommelier competition.

Chaine des Rotisseurs, an international association of professionals in various culinary fields, administers the competition for wine experts age 30 and younger.

To get this far, Kurobe scored in the top three among candidates who took a wine theory exam in December, then bested the other two top scorers in a test March 5 that covered wine service and a blind tasting of six wines.

He will compete against nine other regional winners in May in Portland, Ore. The winner of that competition goes on to the international finals in Budapest, Hungary, in September.

Kurobe is restaurant manager and sommelier at the Mariposa restaurant at Neiman Marcus in Ala Moana Center.