South Africa’s national team of top wine tasters, comprising wine lovers from across the country who qualified via the South African Wine Tasting Championships (SAWTC) earlier this year, departed over the weekend to compete in the World Blind Tasting Championship (WBTC) in Bezier, Languedoc, in France, on Saturday October 13. The team is sponsored by the Nederburg winery near Paarl.
This quest for the best by way of a blind wine tasting, will challenge wine tasters from all over the world to correctly identify a wide range of aspects, from cultivar, wine-growing area and vintage, to winery and country.
Team South Africa 2018 includes Anita Streicher-Nel, Anton Swarts, Welma Smith, Pieter de Klerk and substitute Cyril Meidinger.
Nederburg’s assistant red-wine maker, Heinrich Kulsen, will be joining the team on their trip to Europe, where they’ll be visiting a number of wineries in Spain and France while they undergo training in the lead-up to the WBTC.
“The competition will be tough, that’s for sure, but the team is so excited and ready to make South Africa proud. This will be the sixth time a South African team partakes in this competition,” said principle and coach, Jean Vincent Ridon.
The annual WBTC is organised by French wine publication, La Revue du Vin de France.
