Woman of the Year | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

Despite denials to the news by wine whiner Neil Pendock that his ‘favourite’ target, Wines of South Africa (WOSA) CEO Su Birch, was to resign, said resignation has now been confirmed by WOSA. A fitting ‘going-away’ award for Ms Birch is the 2013 UK The Drinks Business Lifetime Achievement Green Award, it was announced earlier this week.

The Drinks Business Lifetime Achievement Green Award is the world’s largest programme to raise the awareness of the importance of environmental issues in the beverages trade, in recognising those that are leaders in sustainability and environmental performance. The Lifetime Achievement Green Award recognised Ms Birch’s dedication to ‘environmental and/or ethical causes’.

Ms Birch is previously been namd The Drinks Business Woman of the Year, received the International Wine and Spirit Competition’s Women in Wine Award, while Wine Intelligence named her one of the ten most influential wine personalities in the world.

After thirteen years at the helm of WOSA, Ms Birch will vacate her position in September. Her last activity will be the ‘The Beautiful South’ tasting in London, a platform for wines from South Africa, Argentina and Chile.

One wonders if Pendock will target Ms Birch’s successor too, with his regular unprofessional abuse!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Wines of South Africa (WOSA) is planning to bring wine journalists to South Africa during the 2010 World Cup, to enjoy the soccer and wine feast the country has to offer next year, reports Cape Business News.

Su Birch, CEO of WOSA, said that many wine producers are planning to bring European importers to the country for the top soccer event, and have designed incentive programs. “Our intention is to ensure visiting foreign trade and media are exposed to our producers and activities in the winelands while they are here. We’ll give them a taste of true South African hospitality for which we have become famous. They’ll experience the spontaneous African warmth and excitement surrounding the games and get to taste our wines in a new context” she said.

Given the 2010 World Cup focus, WOSA will not be putting on Cape Wine in 2010, and will next host it in 2012.

Birch recently received the honour of being named “Woman of the Year” by The Drinks Business, a British journal, “for her role in the enormous advances made by the South African wine industry on international markets over the past decade.” South African wine exports have grown three-fold in the past ten years.

South Africa is the ninth largest producer of wines, and represents 3 % of total world wine production. Currently just over 400 million liters are exported from South Africa, a growth of 17 % compared to the year before. Sales have grown by 27 % to the UK, by 12 % to Germany, and by 26 % to Sweden, the top three South African export markets.