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In announcing the award Peter commented “Angove's is the deserved winner of our Winery of the Year Award although they faced tough competition from Yalumba and last year's winner, De Bortoli. The improvements at Angove's were evident last year but the quality of the wines has continued to get better and their performance over the past twelve months has been exemplary. From 25 wines submitted, 20 have been featured in Quaff 2008: nine of those have rated as Bloody Good and five as Good. It's been great to see the lift in quality with both the table wines and fortifieds.”

Also included in the top rating wines were two wines in the Top 20 under $15, 2006 Angove's 'Nine Vines' Viognier and 2006 Angove's 'Long Row' Cabernet Sauvignon – no other wine company had more. The 2006 Long Row cabernet also collected the "Best Red” in its price range, whilst the 2006 Long Row Chardonnay collected the award for “Best White” in its price range, capping off a stellar result for this relatively new Angove's range.

John Angove, Managing Director and the 4th generation Angove to run the company was understandably proud with this achievement. “All facets of the company are working well together – from the massive investment in Vineyard and Winery infrastructure that has helped to boost the quality of the wines, through to production, sales and marketing, our entire team is working with a common purpose to improve the quality and profile of all Angove’s wines. We have 120 years of heritage behind us and are now forging forward - hopefully for the next 120 years and 5 more generations of family ownership!”

Angove’s is the 10th largest winery and the 6th largest exporter of branded wine in Australia with sales in over 30 different countries. Established in 1886 by Dr William Thomas Angove, the company now produces in excess of 1.5 million cases of wine but has retained the ability to craft premium quality wine using the time honoured traditional methods of their forebears perfectly interwoven with the most modern winemaking technology.

Along with the 86 points and the Best Buy rating Santa Rita 120 Cabernet Sauvignon 2005 received the following review:

”This perennial Best Buy shines in 2005. It’s clean, inviting and ready to go as piercing cherry, plum and cola flavours make a stand. Flush, warm and fairly full bodied, 120 is one of those bargain lines that satisfies.”

Wine Enthusiast Magazine has grown to become one of the world’s most respected and quoted publications in the field of wine and spirits. Since its founding in 1988 it has remained true to its original mission: to educate and entertain readers in the most accessible and user-friendly way, as part of an active, upscale and fulfilling lifestyle.

The magazine is an important source of ratings and reviews of both wine and spirits currently available in the marketplace, vital to both consumers and to the trade. The magazine’s distinguished tasting panel includes professionals with years of tasting experience, located across the globe in major wine producing areas of the world.

As Santa Rita states:
"It is a fact. A memorable moment. Cecilia Torres is “Winemaker of the Year” in Chile. The decision was made known on Wednesday night, November 15th, during the launching of Guía de Vinos de Chile 2007 (Chile's Wine Guide 2007), in which a group of 88 judges – composed of winemakers, sommeliers, wine industry journalists and consumers - designated the winemaker of Viña Santa Rita as the best in the country.

The excitement and happiness experienced by the Santa Rita team is doubly so since not only did it achieve the prestigious award as “winemaker of the year”, but in addition, for the first time, it was awarded to a woman, setting a milestone within the industry.

Santa Rita’s winemaker was given round after round of applause for the consistent quality and personality of her wines, all of which obtained an average of 3.2 glasses out of a maximum of 4; and with 46% of them ranked among the top 100.

Cecilia Torres went forward four times to receive awards. Medalla Real Chardonnay 2005, Best Chilean Chardonnay; Floresta Syrah 2004, Best Chilean Syrah; Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon – Syrah 2004, Bronze Medal; and, of course, to receive the award for Winemaker of the Year.

The Guía de Vinos describes her as “someone loved by all who has an audacious character masked behind her gentleness. Her boldness is perfectly portrayed in her wines, that have silently set trend after trend and today, she is widely regarded as a world class winemaker”.

"This award caught me at one of the best personal moments of my life. This is recognition not only of my work, but of the effort of the entire team. We are a very tight knit group and that is portrayed in the work we do at Santa Rita", stated the winemaker as she received a round of affectionate hugs.

A lifetime dedicated to wine. Cecilia Torres began working in the wine industry for Santa Rita in 1980 and since then, she has already received dozens of awards, making her, without a doubt, one of the most important people in Chilean viticultural history.

This award is unquestionably an outstanding recognition for a professional with a tremendous trajectory as well as an excellent result for Santa Rita who continues to set the trend from year to year."

As part of the Distell goal to become a leading international player, more than meet customer requirements and comply with legislation where they trade, they continually benchmark themselves against international standards and seek accreditation and certification that endorses their practices as world-class.

We are very proud to tell you that all Distell’s primary and secondary production units, as well as their distribution operations have been awarded an extension in ISO 9001:2000 certification till November 2008. Originally certified in November 2002, the extended certification is, they believe, a mark of their company’s capacity to work to internationally recognised quality and resource management systems. It also recognises their pursuit of even higher standards against which they measure their performance across all areas of their business and the premium they place on food safety.

Their Main Laboratory in Stellenbosch has been accredited to ISO 17025 since June 2003 hereby guaranteeing the high quality of analysis.

To date, seven of Distell´s sites - including Nederburg - have obtained British Retail Consortium (BRC), Food Global version 4 at level A certification (level A is the highest achievable level.

The site Adam Tas also has a listing for International Food Standard (IFS); the preferred requirement by some European customers. This has been attained at version 4 level. Distell has found that the controls implemented to achieve the IFS listing have been so beneficial to their operations that they are now implementing these in the vineyards from which they source their grapes to ensure environmentally sensitive spray programmes are responsibly applied and recorded.

Distell is also in the process of preparing their wineries to the latest version of the ISO 14001:2004 standard for environmental management. To date two of Distell´s sites have been certified – one of them is the Nederburg cellars - which is of course also ISO 9001:2000 and BRC certified.