Submissions to the SAA 2001 Wine Lists break all records
Wednesday, 13 September, 2000
Alex Mason-Gordon
Over 750 wines from nearly 140 wineries
The ongoing partnership between the Cape wine industry and South African Airways has produced a record breaking submission to this year’s annual airline wine judging. Over 750 wines from nearly 140 wineries have been received. The previous record – in 1999 – saw nearly 700 wines from fewer than 100 cellars chasing the high profile listings.
‘The response of the Cape wine industry is deeply gratifying,’ said Coleman Andrews, President and CEO of South African Airways. ‘It confirms that the spirit of partnership fostered over nearly two decades delivers as much value to the producers has it has does to the airline. The potential synergy between our responsibility to give our passengers a world class experience, and the industry’s need to showcase its world class wines comes together in the annual wine selection process.’
The new judging format introduced last year eliminated the screening process and placed the entire submission before the final tasting panel. ‘This involved a vast increase in the amount of work required of the judges and all the support staff, ‘ observed Michael Fridjhon, convenor of the panel, ‘but it does ensure a consistency of quality across the entire selection process.’ This innovation has already vindicated itself. At this year’s United States Business Traveller ‘Cellars in the Sky’ tasting, three red wines from SAA’s onboard listing finished in the Top Ten – an unprecedented performance by any airline and an extraordinary achievement for the Cape wine industry. This means that South Africa outshone France and Australia in the final listings, a result unparalleled in the history of the industry in any major competition.
The changes in the selection process have produced greater consistency in the aesthetic criteria applied by the judging panels. Smaller working groups are also able to focus on the top wines in each category and this in turn leads to enhanced accuracy in assessing the strength of each class of submissions. ‘There are a multitude of ways of managing a wine judging process,’ says convenor Michael Fridjhon. ‘Our primary concern is to secure the best Cape wines for onboard service while at the same time ensuring that their quality meets the most rigorous international standards. Smaller panels, more overseas judges and a fourfold increase in the judging capacity of the final group have enabled us to achieve these objectives.’
‘The Cape wine industry has embraced the arrangements introduced last year whereby a portion of the costs associated with the management of the wine selection is borne by those who achieve onboard listings,’ said Victor Nosi, SAA’s VP Corporate Services.
A nominal contribution based on actual sales to the airline over the listing period goes into a fund which helps to meet these expenses. This is separate from the R190-00 submission fee per sample which is paid straight into the SAA Wine Education Trust. ‘This programme, established in 1995, provides scholarships for tertiary training in the wine industry to those - mainly from historically disadvantaged groups – in financial need. This fund is the largest training initiative of its kind and is now administered by the South African Wine Industry Trust,’ Mr Nosi concluded.
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