A wooded Cabernet Sauvignon from Wellington Wines took the crown by clinching the prestigious General Smuts Trophy as overall SA Champion Wine of 2023 after also being named as the country’s best Cabernet Sauvignon (wooded) at the SA Young Wine Show.
Wellington Wines also won the General Smuts Trophy in 2018 for a wooded Pinotage and this year reached a double achievement by also clinching the Pietman Hugo Trophy.
This annual show for wines of the current vintage year is presented by the SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) in collaboration with Agri-Expo.
The General Smuts Trophy was last awarded to a Cabernet Sauvignon 27 years ago in 1996 and it is the sixth time in the history of the 191 year-old competition – the oldest of its kind in the world – that a Cabernet Sauvignon bags this major award as its 72nd winner. Wildekrans Estate did this last in 1996 with a “cab”, after Muratie Estate in 1995, JP Bredell Wines in 1993, Saxenburg Estate in 1991 and Klein Constantia Estate in 1988.
The competition’s impressive array of trophies was announced today (25 August) at a prestigious dinner hosted by the Paarl Young Wine Show at the Dawn Mountains function venue near Paarl. Altogether 44 wines achieved Class Winner status and 79 received Gold Medals.
Wellington Wines received the Pietman Hugo Trophy for the winery achieving the highest total score for its five best wines; this being the first time that Wellington walks away with this accolade after sharing it with Robertson Cellar in 2020.
Thereby, Wellington become only the fourth cellar to win these trophies simultaneously since the inception of the Pietman Hugo Trophy in 1994. The General Smuts Trophy has been awarded since 1952 and the other cellars to achieve this double award are Badsberg in 2009 and 2016, KWV in 2015 and Namaqua Wines in 2017.
The fact that this year’s entries are up on last year, shows that the oldest wine show in the country is gaining new momentum. The judges were particularly impressed by the quality of the 2023 wines, despite a vintage year that posed many challenges to winemakers as a result of rainy weather during the latter part of harvest time.
This year’s 1 250 entries were evaluated by 65 specialist judges on 14 panels. The judging took place in the Johann Graue Hall at Nederburg in Paarl over a period of five days at the end of June. Following this, the champions in 16 classes were named, as well as the two trophies for the Best Wine and Best Producer.
A special bottle sticker was introduced in 2013 to feature on the bottles of the
General Smuts Trophy winner and thereby show-off the overall best wine in the marketplace. This has led to more trophy winners being bottled as such in recent years instead of ‘losing their identity’ through further blending.
With regard to overall results, Wellington Wines reached a further remarkable achievement by also entering four Champion Red Wines in addition to the General Smuts and Pietman Hugo Trophies – namely the SA Champion Cabernet Sauvignon (wooded), Pinotage (wooded), Shiraz (unwooded) and Merlot (unwooded).
Van Loveren Family Vineyards is the only cellar winning two champion wines:
- Other White Cultivar: Van Loveren Colombar, and
- White Blend: Van Loveren Sauvignon Blanc/Colombar
Die rest of the SA Champions are:
- Sauvignon Blanc – Nabygelegen Private Cellar Sauvignon Blanc
- Chardonnay – Robertson Cellar Chardonnay (wooded)
- Chenin Blanc – Badsberg Cellar Chenin Blanc (wooded)
- Sémillon – La Motte Wine Estate Sémillon
- Natural Sweet – OWK Keimoes Natural Sweet White Wine
- Other Red Cultivar – Perdeberg Wines Grenache Noir
- Red Blend – Spier Wines Shiraz/Pinotage (wooded)
- Dessert Wine – Clairvaux Cellar Hanepoot Jerepigo
- Muscadel – Montagu Wine Cellar Red Muscadel Jerepigo
- Cape Style – De Krans Wines Any Other Cape Style/Blend
Paarl put up the best show as wine region with seven National Trophies, followed by Robertson with four, Klein Karoo and Stellenbosch with two each and Breedekloof and Orange River one each.
The chairperson of the SA Young Wine Show, Christo Pienaar, said that the quality of the young wines this year had impressed him despite the challenges facing winemakers. Consumers can look forward to quality wines when bottled. “It is noticeable that the national winners originate from right across the country’s wine- producing areas, as well as a variety of winery types. I would like to thank those cellars that participated for their ongoing support.”
The organisers have announced that the SA Young Wine Show has welcomed a further five financial partners to the show – which are all well-known suppliers to the industry, namely Anchor Oenology, Enartis, Laffort, Nexus and Standard Bank. Their contributions are highly welcomed to ensure a bright future for the Young Wine Show – which is known as ‘the jewel’ of the industry.
OVERSEAS VISIT FOR TOP WINEMAKERS
Two of Wellington Wines’ winemakers can as winners of the General Smuts and Pietman Hugo Trophies look forward to a sponsored six-day trip overseas – thanks to a partnership since 2019 between SANWSA and Porex – a prominent Paarl-based supplier of machinery and winemaking equipment to the industry. These winemakers will visit amongst others a well-known fermentation company and filtration plant in Germany, as well as several local wine cellars.
