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MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Judges and retailer step up to mentor qualified tasters
There are very few training opportunities in SA, and even fewer working slots
Weekend golfers do not always envy golf professionals: they know that when the stakes are as high as an Open title it’s perfectly possible for a rational human being, under the kind of pressure induced by the occasion, to squander a seemingly unassailable lead at a water hazard. Wine enthusiasts are less likely to feel even a twinge of sympathy for the few (more or less) professional tasters in the wine industry in SA. The thought that someone might be getting up in the morning with nothing ahead of him/her other than a vista of 100 wine glasses is unlikely to produce a feeling of sympathy. There are very few training opportunities in SA, and even fewer working slots. I’ve been running the Wine Judging Academy (part of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business) since 2007. In that time we’ve turned out more than 100 qualified tasters. Only a fraction of the top students ever get a chance to put in a stint on a panel, and only a tiny percentage of these get enough wor...
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