TeamSA2019 for South African Tasting Champs announced!

Monday, 22 July, 2019
Judy Brower
There was much tension in the air at the start of the tough finals the South African Wine Tasting Championships at the Taj Hotel on Sunday 21 July, which, in fact continued right throughout the day until the very last minute of the announcement of TeamSA!

Congrats to TeamSA #TeamNederburg: Cyril Meidinger, Anton Swarts (CWM), Heidi Kritzinger, Anita Streicher-Nel, Jean Vincent Ridon (coach) & reserve Chris Groenewald

The 2019 World Blind Wine tasting Championships will be held in France in Chambord in October and South Africa will be sending the best tasters to the event to improve on the 10th position they achieved last year.

It is really such a tough competition - and the finals run by #flyingsommelier Jean Vincent Ridon mimic the world champs, giving finalists a taste of what is to come. The finalists are presented with twelve wines, blind, and they have to identify the country of origin, cultivar, vintage, appellation and producer for each. There are well over 8000 wines produced just in South Africa, so imagine how fine-tuned your palate needs to be to identify just 12 of them correctly.

This year's winners of the South African leg are all members of the 'Mooiwyners' tasting group, who taste together regularly, showing how important it is to expose your palate to international wines frequently.  In the last few weeks, they tasted over 100 wines!

There were 15 finalists tasting through the wines, with only 4 who made it to TeamSA, with one reserve.

#TeamSA2019 #TeamNederburg...

  • Anton Swarts (CWM) - who also walked away with the Inaugural wine.co.za Top Taster trophy
  • Anita Streicher-Nel
  • Heidi Kritzinger
  • Cyril Meidinger
  • Chris Groenewald (reserve)

This is a very experienced team, as each of them have previously been to the World Champs, so they know the drill and can really show the world what South African Tasters are made of.

Anton will be going for the 4th time, Anita Streicher-Nel will be going for the 5th time since inception in 2013 and Heidi and Cyril will both be making their 2nd trip to the World Champs, so this is the best chance we have to take the World Champs!

New sponsor Concours Mondial de Bruxelles will invite the best SA tasters to Brno (Czech Republic) in May 2020, exposing them to the international tasting and judging scene.

Nederburg and wine.co.za are proud to be associated with such a talented team and wish them well for the World Champs in October.

More on the wines soon!

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JV Ridon, Cyril, Anton, (CWM), Heidi, Anita & reserve Chris
JV Ridon, Cyril, Anton, (CWM), Heidi, Anita & reserve Chris

Anton Swarts (CWM) - Top Taster with wine.co.za Trophy
Anton Swarts (CWM) - Top Taster with wine.co.za Trophy

SAWTC 2019 Finals Prizes from Nederburg & wine.co.za
SAWTC 2019 Finals Prizes from Nederburg & wine.co.za

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