Cape Town came alive on Thursday, 24 November when 100 guests attended the second annual Spit or Swallow Box Wine Awards at the Penthouse on Long. Magnum Pi moustaches, Hawaiian shirts and hairdos from the eighties set the theme for a revolutionary evening for South African wine as we know it.

This year Robertson Winery Sauvignon Blanc was awarded the best White Box Wine in South Africa and Drostdy-hof Merlot 2010 walked away with the title for best Red.

This year saw the second year of the awards and entries to this year’s competition increased from 14 bag in a box wines to a staggering 39. Over 80 Judges tasted through this year’s line-up with only one aim at hand, to find the best red and best white box wine in South Africa. This makes the competition the most prestigious wine competition in South Africa, with only 2 winners being crowned at the end of the evening.

Everyone who attended the event had the opportunity to judge the wines. The judging panel was a nice mix between esteemed wine critics and experts, everyday wine drinkers and members of the media.

What made this competition different from any wine competition in the world was the scoring system that was used. The popular social media website, Twitter, was used to record and calculate all the scores submitted on the evening, a definite first in the world. All 39 box wines were scored blindly out of 10. Everyone who attended the event’s twitter handles were registered and all that the judges had to do is tweet their scores @boxwineawards. This live method of scoring provided people from across South Africa and the world with the opportunity to follow the event online and see exactly which boxes were in the lead.

This year’s line-up consisted out of the following wines and was scored accordingly:

	Drostdy-hof Merlot 2010	6.71
2.	Robertson Winery Cabernet Sauvignon	5.93
3.	Drostdy-hof Claret Select	5.88
4.	Woolworths Simonsvlei – Dry Red	5.71
5.	Du Toitskloof Cellar Cabernet/Shiraz	5.66
6.	Woolworths Dry Red	5.56
7.	Uniwines Fairtrade Palesa – Shiraz	5.50
8.	Robertson Winery Merlot	5.44
9.	Black Box Pinotage	5.44
10.	Du Toitskloof Cellar Pinotage/Merlot/Ruby Cabernet	5.43
11.	Robertson Winery Sauvignon Blanc	5.37
12.	Woolworths Crisp White	5.32
13.	Windmeul Mild White	5.2
14.	Stellenbosch Hills Pokadraai – Merlot/Shiraz	5.19
15.	Overmeer Full Body Smooth Red	5.13
16.	Du Toitskloof Cellar Chenin Blanc	5.10
17.	Woolworths Simonsvlei – Blanc de Blanc	5.02
18.	Tassenberg Dry Red	5.00
19.	Woolworths Light White	5.00
20.	Du Toitskloof Cellar Sauvignon Blanc	4.93
21.	Oranje Rivier Dry Red	4.88
22.	Woolworths Simonsvlei Stein	4.81
23.	uniWines Fairtrade Palesa Chenin Blanc	4.73
24.	Woolworths Simonsvlei Longmarket Merlot	4.71
25.	Robertson Winery Chardonnay	4.67
26.	Black Box Grand Cru	4.63
27.	Black Box Merlot	4.5
28.	Drostdy-hof Sauvignon Blanc 2011	4.5
29.	Robertson Winery Shiraz	4.47
30.	Woolworths Light Red	4.38
31.	Drostdy-hof Extra Light Dry White	4.37
32.	Stellenbosch Hills Polkadraai Sauvignon Blanc	4.3
33.	Overmeer Crisp Dry Premier Grand Cru	4.29
34.	Overmeer Selected fruity White Stein	4.24
35.	Overmeer Fresh Fruity Late Harvest	4.13
36.	Woolworths Simonsvlei Longmarket Cabernet Sauvignon / Merlot	3.94
37.	Black Box Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon	3.59
38.	Robertson Winery Extra Light Sauvignon Blanc	3.51
39.	Black Box Shiraz	3.27

South Africa’s leading wine news website, winetimes.co.za, was the main sponsor of the event and their aim was to promote responsible drinking. Rikkis Taxi’s showed their support and offered guests a save ride to and from the event at a discounted rate. Vital Health ensured the safety of everyone’s livers by sponsoring Vital Liver Rescue tablets. No one went hungry thanks to The Woodstock who supplied the food for the evening and guests enjoyed tasty snacks served on artisan cutting boards made from South African wood by local carpenters. Guest also had the opportunity to experiment with a Vinturi Aerator on the evening and one lucky guest who tasted all the wines won one of these nifty gadgets.

Two camera crews captured the event on video, which will be up for viewing on winetimes.co.za as well as YouTube within the next couple of weeks. The camera crews present on the evening were GigTV and Social Plus One and the radiant Jeanri-Tine Van Zyl from Ruby Tuesdays fame conducted the red carpet interviews. The host of the evening, Juan Graham Locke, who is also the newly appointed Senior Marketing Manager at WineTimes kept the speeches short, sweet and entertaining as he thanked all those present at the event, those who lend a helping hand, the sponsors as well as the producers of the box wines who kindly sponsored the wines for the evening.

Tickets to this year’s event were available online through http://www.micket.me/ and the organisers are happy to announce that the event was sold out.

Another event will be held in the new year where the 2 winners will be awarded with their trophies.

Visit Facebook for photos taken on the evening.

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