Steenberg winemaker qualifies for Team SA in World Wine Tasting Championships

Friday, 30 June, 2017
SAWTC
Steenberg winemaker Jolette Steyn, the 2017 South African Provincial Wine Tasting Champion and winner of the Wonga Trophy, has qualified for Team SA to compete in the World Blind Wine Tasting Championships in Burgundy, France.

As highest scoring winner of the provincial legs, Steyn’s exceptional performance has secured her position in Team SA 2017. The three other team members, plus a substitute, will be selected at the national finals in Cape Town on Sunday, 2 July 2017.

South Africa will be one of 27 countries competing in the 2017 World Blind Wine Tasting Championships to be held in Nuit Saint George in Burgundy on 14 October 2017. The event is organised annually by Revue du Vin de France, one of the most respected wine magazines published since 1927. Team SA has participated since 2013 and came 6th overall last year, their highest ranking ever.

Steyn is the second Steenberg Vineyards team member to be included in the South African wine tasting squad after Chantelle Johansson, Steenberg’s cellar door and wine club manager, made the cut in 2013.

With numerous qualifications in viticulture, oenology and wine tasting under her belt including a Master of Science in Europe, Steyn, who joined Steenberg in 2014, is currently working towards becoming a UK Master of Wine.

The Wonga Provincial Championship Trophy is named after Wonga Nongqotho, one of the most talented emerging South African sommeliers, whose promising career was cut short by his untimely death earlier this year before he was able to compete in the provincial championships to qualify for Team SA 2017.