The SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) which runs two of South Africa’s foremost wine shows – the SA Young Wine Show and Veritas Awards – has announced that the Novare SA Terroir Wine Awards, one of the most exclusive wine competitions worldwide, will be presented under its auspices in future.
SANWSA chairperson Christo Pienaar describes this as one of the most important announcements with regard to wine shows in the South African wine industry.
He says that an agreement was reached with the founder of the SA Terroir Wine Awards 14 years ago, Marius Labuschagne, to take ownership of the competition and present it in future.
“We are very excited to be able to take such a specialised wine competition on board and to further develop it with our knowledge and expertise which was built up over the years from other competitions. The SANWSA is an industry organisation which presents shows on behalf of the SA wine industry and we believe that it is the ideal home for this terroir-driven competition.”
Labuschagne, a seasoned wine journalist – who worked for years at KWV as assistant editor of the then Wynboer magazine (today WineLand) and later established his own media consultancy – saw the gap in 2005 to start the terroir competition.
This competition crowns the best wines brought forth by different soil and climatic factors in the different areas. Only products certified as Wine of Origin (WO) from a Single Vineyard, Estate, Ward or District (the latter not including more than one Ward) are eligible for entry. It is one of the world’s most exclusive wine competitions because of the Wine of Origin rules that apply here.
“As the Wine of Origin Scheme forms part of South Africa’s wine system and culture, it was my natural choice to transfer the Novare SA Terroir Wine Awards to the industry as sole owner. South Africa boasts one of the world’s top origin systems and it is therefore extremely suitable that this competition becomes part of the industry, like Veritas and the SA Young Wine Show,” says Labuschagne.
The Cape winelands feature various areas which yield top quality wines from all cultivars and all styles and with the WO system it is possible to single out wines which truly represent specific soils and climates for evaluation. It is insightful to see annually which terrain yields the best wine from which cultivar.
Without the Wine & Spirit Board and SA Wine Industry Information & Systems (Sawis), this competition could not exist and therefore it is an integral part of the South African wine industry.
Novare, a leading independent financial services company, which was the title sponsor of the Terroir Wine Competition from the onset, has announced that it will continue the partnership with the SANWSA.
Through this step the SANWSA reinforces its position as leader in wine show presentation in South Africa. The SA Young Wine Show is one of the world’s most long-standing wine shows, dating back to 1833, and Veritas is the oldest domestic show for wines already bottled and labelled, in existence since 1990.
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Issued by Veritas Awards
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