The South African Sommeliers Association (SASA) gathered on Friday, 10 May a group of some of the country’s very best wine sommeliers to invite them to be part of their latest project: Team South Africa. Team South Africa is essentially the national wine tasting team of South Africa. It will be a team of elite, high performance sommeliers who will train together to ultimately compete in international wine tasting and sommellier competitions like the ASI Best Sommelier competitions. Their coach will be Jean-Vincent Ridon, the reigning Best Sommelier of South Africa and the newest SASA board member. The soft launch of this exciting project took place at the intimate Spek & Bone restaurant on Stellenbosch. Here, Spencer Fondaumiere, chairman of SASA, and Jean-Vincent explained what this project is all about. SASA served a selection of local fine wines at the event, and the Spek & Bone team prepared a delicious lunch. Following a rigorous selection process, the team will be announced in due course.