VERITAS 2019

VERITAS JUDGING 49

INTERNATIONAL WINE AND BRANDY EXPERTS JUDGE AT VERITAS For the 2019 competition, five international judges joined the line-up of the expert group representing various countries. Christine Austin from the UK is a regular visitor to South Africa. She has more than 20 years’ experience of wine writing for a number of publications, including The Yorkshire Post in northern England and The iWeekend , a UK national newspaper. She judges at various competitions internationally and has been a panel chairperson at The International Wine Challenge for quite some time. She organises the York Festival of Food and Drink, an annual festival with more than 150 000 visitors now in its 16th year. UK-based Joe Wadsack currently co-hosts the British TV series BBC Food & Drink and is the wine expert on This Morning on ITV1 with two other wine enthusiasts. Renowned for his brilliant palate, Joe studied wine in Bordeaux before working as a buyer at Waitrose and is now a consultant and public speaker. He is a regular international judge at wine competitions around the world, including the UK, South Africa, Australia, and Chile. Michael Franz from Washington DC is a seasoned wine journalist of more than 25 years’ standing. He was a wine columnist for the The Washington Post for 12 years before co-founding his own on-line publication Wine Review Online of which he is the editor and managing partner, with more than a million viewers annually. He is also a freelance feature author for various national and international magazines. He judges regularly for numerous national and international wine competitions on all six continents. Tersina Shieh, from Hong Kong, is a marketer turned winemaker who has made wine in the UK, Portugal, South Africa, China and New Zealand. She strives to promote the wine culture in Hong Kong and China, inspiring the average consumer to appreciate and enjoy the product of the vine in a no-nonsense way. She contributes to several wine editorials and has judged at many international wine competitions. Tersina took a year off in 2017- 2018 to make wine around the world, worked in nine wineries and visited even more wine regions. In addition to her winemaking qualifications, she also holds a MBA degree and is a chartered marketer. Jo Wessels, who hails from Bloemfontein, has been living in Germany since 2015 when he started his studies in International Wine Business at Geisenheim University, furthering his understanding of the international wine trade and South Africa’s part therein. Parallel to his studies, he has been certified by the Court of Master Sommeliers and is currently working towards the German qualification of IHK Geprüfte Sommeliermeister and the WSET Diploma of the Deutsche Wein- & Sommelierschule. During this time he entered the Veritas Young Wine Writer of the Year competition in 2018 and took second place. He was the South African representative at the ASI Best Sommelier of the World competition in Belgium among 66 top sommeliers in April this year, after winning the Best Sommelier of South Africa Competition last year. Jo is currently the sommelier at the two star Michelin Restaurant Opus V in Mannheim.