This is a photo of my friend, Ntsiki Biyela from Stellekaya. I met her six years ago this month. I think it was on January 18. I had written a long article for the magazine Gourmet Retailer on South African wines and they found me through that piece. I organized a few press events for her and attended others. It was my first foray into South African wines. Since then, thanks to conferences and tastings I have tasted many others that I have enjoyed. I am due for a new tasting and hopefully one will be coming round soon or someone fun will come to town. In the meantime, I can go to any wine store these days and by a South African wine. Something unexpected years ago. Today Meininger Wine Business International came out with this article which struck me and I found very interesting. Kudos to Jim Clarke, the PR agency involved and Wosa for their work here in the US. I just discovered that they even have an online certification class now. I remember talking to someone in South Africa in 2010 about coming over to do certifications for the New York Trade. Times have changed. This photo was from the 1994 voting in Soweto when Apartheid had finally ended. I used to work in an office with the Associated Press and was the recipient of amazing photos when they went digital.