Veritas Awards 2021
With the 2021 Veritas awards this past weekend a flurry of awards have been snatched up by plenty of wineries, Spier wines and KWV in particular cleaned up at the annual awards ceremony with KWV winning a whopping six Double Gold medals (for a score ranging from 93 to 100) and ten Gold medals (scored 90 to 92) for its wines and four Double Gold medals and One Gold for its brandies – making it one of the highest achieving cellars on the night. Spier clinching four Double Gold medals hot on the heels of KWV!
This year saw the Vertex award renamed after the late and great wine industry legendary, Duimpie Bayly. The highlight of the event – held outdoors under strict Covid-19 protocols at the Val de Vie Estate Polo Club (Saturday 6 November) – was the handing over of the Duimpie Bayly Veritas Vertex Award for the overall champion wine from almost 1 300 entries this year, to Spier cellarmaster Johan Jordaan.
Another exciting evolvement to come of the Veritas awards this year is the announcement of the brand new Veritas stickers that producers will be using on their bottles. The award stickers will now display the score that the particular wine was awarded by the judges. For Double Gold, the scores will range from 93 - 100, while those of the Gold winners will range from 90 - 92.
Staying with Veritas, entries for the 2021 SA Wine Writer of the Year will close on Monday (15th of November). This is a great opportunity for any young and aspiring wine writer to get a foot in the door into the wine industry. Participants are to present their entries in MS Word format to: info@veritas.co.za, along with a completed entry form and short CV, stating specific details of possible previous wine-writing activities. Here is what you need to know to enter.
Future Forward SA Wine Industry Conference - Vinpro
Having attended this incredibly insightful conference hosted by Vinpro, representatives from industry giants Vinpro, SAWIS, WoSA, SAWITU, Winetech, WIETA and the SA Brandy Foundation joined the conversation on the following topics:
- The WISE roadmap towards 2025
- SA wine industry scenarios going forward
- Expand SA wine’s global footprint
- Cultivate a loyal (and growing) local market
- Shift towards an inclusive, transformed, and responsible wine value-chain
The were are few themes that kept everyone in attendance enthralled, including the South African wine industry views on transformation and the development of people as key imperatives to ensure a strong and sustainable future for all. Changes the industry and government need to make in order to speed up sustainable transformation while building mutual trust between all stakeholders, supporting new enterprises, and developing talent throughout the value chain.
wine.co.za's Top 8 Wine Picks of the Week
For us at wine.co.za, wine is not just about news and sales but conviviality, making memories, and creating ones with special people around you. Every glass should tell a story. With that said, we've compiled a list of a few of our favourite wines around the wine.co.za office with an addition of two new faces to the team. It's been an exciting few weeks at the office for us, suffice to say, my choice was a celebratory Kaapse Vonkel Brut 2019 Cap Classique. Read our favourite wines of the week HERE.
Buzzing in South Africa
Old vines are a special kind of wine-world treasure. But with varying global definitions of what constitutes an old vine, it’s not always easy to know a site’s full lifespan and story. In South Africa, the Old Vine Project (OVP) aims to remedy any confusion through the registration of sites that are 35 years or older as Certified Heritage Vineyard. When a wine is produced from one of these sites, its label carries a seal and lists the year the vineyard was planted.
What to Do, See, and Taste
It's that time of the year again, so many places to visit and not enough time. Here are a few of our recently listed events for you to choose from:
- Neethlingshof Wine Down Wednesdays Are Back For The Summer Season - Wednesday, 17 November 2021, Wednesday, 24 November 2021
- Unlock the diversity of indigenous succulents at Babylonstoren - Wednesday, 17 November 2021
- Muratie End of Year bash with the Kitchen Jammin Blues Band - Saturday, 20 November 2021
- Proe Paarl - Saturday, 20 November, 2021
- Sunday Sunset Concerts at Durbanville Hills - Sunday, 3 October, 2021 to Sunday, 27 March, 2022
- Hazendal Jazz Club Hosts Mthuni Mchuni - Wednesday, 24 November, 2021
With such a variety of events, we're spoiling you with the luxury of choice! Learn more about these events and how to book HERE.
Don't forget to sign up for our NEWS and shop our fabulous selections of the best of SA wine HERE
And that's a wrap.
Cheers!