South African Airways (SAA) is celebrating 20 years of promoting the country's wines and the local wine industry.

Not only does this process, writes Sarah de Villiers on www.wine.co.za, offer producers a chance to interact with international and local experts, it's also an opportunity to get their wines served on local, regional or international routes. This year over 1,200 wines were entered, topping previous years. The wines are divided into categories and assessed over three days.

The judging panel consisted of South African judges Dave Hughes, Yegas Naidoo, Tariro Masayiti, Tatiana Marcetteau, Jabulani Ntshangase and Jörg Pfützner. The international judges included Alessia Antinori ( Italy ), Bob Cartwright ( Australia ), Lynne Sherriff (UK), Bengt Kronstam ( Sweden ), John Avery (UK) and Benoit Marguet-Bonnerave ( France ).

The rigorous judging process identifies the best wines which are then purchased and served on board SAA flights. The top wines in the final selection are ranked and will receive awards at the SAA Annual Wine Awards in early November. The categories are top red, white, port and Methode Cap Classique.

SAA purchased 285,000 750ml bottles of wine (55% red and 45% white) for business class for 2006. For the economy class, the airline bought 2 million 187ml bottles. SAA spent a 25 million rands on wine across all classes for 2006, an 11% increase on 2005. A donation from each entry goes into the South African Wine Industry Trust, which enables young individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds who are passionate about pursuing a career in the wine industry.

The judges raised some important points at the feedback session after the tasting, when the media got to interact with them.

"Speaking from an onboard perspective as a consumer and someone who flies regularly it's pleasing to be exposed to South African wines across the board. As judges we try to choose wines that capture the spirit of what we do in the winelands," said Yegas Naidoo, one of SAA's frequent flyers with Voyager Platinum status and a South African and UK Wine Master. Overall, the flight that most impressed her was red blends.

Alessia Antinori, daughter of Marchese Piero Antinori, from the Italian wine family that has been in the wine business since 1385, agreed with Naidoo. "This is my first time in South Africa , and it's been a great experience," Antinori declared. "Being from Chianti Classico in Tuscany we focus on red wines, especially Sangiovese, which can be hard and tannic on its own and is always blended. For this reason, I was interested in the red blends in this tasting. Some were green and tannic, unbalanced with too much oak. But others showed great promise." Antinori recommended South Africa concentrate on red blends rather than single varietals.

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