The Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards: Management changes and the return of an old ally announced

Wednesday, 22 April, 2015

Lorraine Immelman

This year marks the 19th Michelangelo International Wine & Spirit Awards and still the competition continues its remarkable growth. In 2014 the competition introduced South Africa’s first Liqueur Awards, the Michelangelo IQ Business Wine Club was founded in Johannesburg and entries rose to a record-breaking 1730.

Positive changes and additions:
Michelangelo owner and managing director, Lorraine Immelman, announced that Cape Wine Master Christine Rudman had accepted the position as the competition’s Technical Director with immediate effect.

Christine has been serving on the judging panel since 2007, representing South Africa on the international panel of judges. Her new role as Technical Director takes her out of the judging process as she will be responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of the competition. This includes verifying all entries, supervising the logistics during the one-week judging process and - in close co-operation with the auditors - overseeing the allocation of medals and trophies.

“We are also delighted to welcome back to the Michelangelo panel honorary Cape Wine Master, Dave Hughes, who will take his place as a member of the jury again this year, Lorraine commented. Dave has also been appointed chairman of the Michelangelo Brandy panel.

International judges confirmed:
To date 19 international judges have accepted the invitation to judge on this year’s Michelangelo panels. Ultimately 22 wine and liqueur judges will serve on the 2015 jury. Confirmed judges are:

1. Christine Austin - UK
2. Dave Hughes CWM - (Brandy panel president) South Africa
3. Denis Garrett - France
4. Eduardo Viotti - Brazil
5. Gregory Mundame - South Africa
6. Gérard Chaussee - France
7. Helen Frith - New Zealand
8. Jordi Vidal - Spain
9. József Kosárka - Hungary
10. Liam Campbel - Ireland
11. Luigi Salvo – Italy
12. Marin Berovi - Slovenia
13. Mark van Oversteeg -The Netherlands
14. Roz Crowley - Ireland
15. Sagi Cooper - Israel
16. Subhash Arora - India
17. Sue van Wyk CWM - Australia
18. Vili Galabova - Bulgaria
19. Wolfgang Junglas – Germany

Announcing the new TRANE Cape Blend trophy:
In our quest to bring the wine industry closer to the producers, Michelangelo has over the past decade introduced a number of trophy sponsors for specific categories. These are normally driven by enquiries and suggestions from producers who would like to see specific areas of wine production promoted and highlighted, and to this end we have introduced a trophy for the Best Cape Blend, sponsored by heating and cooling specialist company, TRANE.

Alistair Sansom, director of Service First which is the authorised distributor of TRANE in South Africa, commented that his company was delighted to be part of the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirit Awards. “TRANE is a global leader in the manufacture of HVAC-R equipment and the largest manufacturer of large chillers for commercial and industrial applications. TRANE’s association with this new award coincides with a release of a host of new products last year, the largest in 20 years.

“TRANE’s reputation and commitment to quality and reliability remains industry leading and believe that they have never been positioned better to provide equipment to the wine industry of the highest standard. TRANE, in partnership with the Michelangelo, hopes to showcase the synergies between a world class product and world class produce through sponsorship of this exciting new award.”