“It is such a thrill to have a full team of international drinks experts serving on the judging panels again this year,” says founder and organiser of Michelangelo International Wine and Spirit Awards, Lorraine Immelman. “25 of our judges have been sourced from other international competitions in Europe and the USA, based on their experience and standing in the industry.
“This endorses everything which Michelangelo stands for – to offer an independent, professional and impartial platform for wines and distilled spirits to be adjudicated and awarded for excellence. Our international judging panels guarantee this, and also add status to the awards,” she says.
This year’s Michelangelo judges line-up
Otto Batzer, Austria; Georgi Mihov, Bulgaria; Liz Palmer, Dame Chevalier de Coteaux de Champagne from Canada; Karel Novotný, Czech Republic; Thomas Rydberg, Denmark; Charlie Arturaola, France; Moshe Cohen, Israel; Michele Shah, Italy; Chris Alblas, importer of organic and biodynamic wines in Europe, from Netherlands; Wojciech Gogolinski, Poland; Achim Dörr, Germany, Nuno Jorge, Portugal; Heidi Duminy, Wilhelm Pienaar, Greg Mutambe and Cape Wine Master Elsie Pells from South Africa; Andrej Ondrejmiska, Slovakia; Dr Marin Berovic (OIV Commissioner and Chairman of European Wine Competitions from Slovenia); Jesús Bernad Dueñas, Spain; Per Karlsson, Sweden; Richard Phister, Switzerland; Serhat Narsap, Laura Clay (IWC Senior judge) and Geoffrey Dean from the UK.
The 2022 Distilled Spirits panel consist of:
- Bernard Schaefer, professional spirits taster and Master of the Quaich from Germany;
- René van Hoven, spirits and Rum specialist from the Netherlands;
- Johan Venter, former Master distiller and blender, South Africa;
- Ivan Dixon, drinks consultant and spirits buyer, United Kingdom
- Arthur Nägele, international spirits judge and trainer, Switzerland
Additions to the Ready to Drinks (RTD) category
A number of new categories have again been added to this year’s line-up, as Michelangelo continues to offer opportunities to all wine and spirits producers to have their products adjudicated by a world-class panel of judges. In the Ready to Drink Products (RTD’s) and Premixes category a class has been added for Wine-based RTD’s to accommodate the growing style of aperitifs.
The 26th Michelangelo opens for entries this year on Monday, 2 May and closes for entries and deliveries of entries on Thursday, 30 June. Entry fees remain unchanged at R 1150,00 (plus VAT).
For more information, please visit www.maiwsa.co.za.
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