Entries are being awaited for this year’s SA Young Wine Show the country’s oldest wine competition which is open for wine creations of the current vintage year – an important annual yardstick of the new harvest’s quality and character.
The SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) which presents this competition, has announced that winemakers from all the country’s wine areas can enter locally until 20 June and directly at the Show’s Paarl office until 4 July. The judging takes place on 21 - 25 July in the Johann Graue Hall at Nederburg in Paarl.
South Africa can boast presenting the SA Young Wine Show, actually the oldest wine show of its kind worldwide, for the 193rd time since its inception in Cape Town in 1833.
This unique competition gives winemakers the opportunity to enter their various 2025 young wines from all the winegrowing areas – mostly still in tanks and barrels and not market-ready – to compete in the Show’s various categories.
The 2025 young wines are being awaited with great expectation. Winemakers and viticulturists are elated and agree that this has been one of the best seasons, which is delivering a variety of top quality wines.
Chief executive of the wine industry body Vinpro, Conrad Schutte, says, “The 2025 vintage in South Africa is characterised by exceptional quality, favourable growing conditions, and unique regional expressions.
“Moderate temperatures, sufficient winter rainfall, and meticulous canopy management contributed to an excellent growing season and outstanding grape quality, although production is slightly lower than average.Indications are that the harvest will yield wines with remarkable fruit expression, freshness, and complexity.”
The Young Wine Show annually names SA champion trophies in 17 classes, which offers all producers the ideal opportunity to compete for them with their choice wines. Moreover, two particularly sought-after trophies are at stake, namely the General Smuts Trophy that was awarded for the first time in 1952 for the overall champion wine and the Pietman Hugo Trophy introduced in 1996 as recognition for the highest total scores achieved for five wines entered by the same winery.
The SA Young Wine Show offers a unique opportunity for the producers to annually enter their young wines for evaluation and use the results as a measure of quality. The Show is also widely utilised by winemakers to evaluate their new styles, experimental wines and new cultivars, while the established varieties show their mettle at a youthful age.
As the practice has been over all the years, specialist judges are appointed to allthe panels to ensure that the best judging expertise is harnessed to identify the winners. The Young Wine Show also presents the opportunityto train young tasters; hence a trainee judge joins each panel of five members to be schooled for future shows.
Thanks to the value of the 19 showpiece trophies – awarded since the glory days of the Company Gardens in Cape Town and later at the Goodwood Showgrounds in the various categories in collaboration with Agri-Expo –the SA Young Wine Show has gone from strength to strength as a yardstick of South Africa’syoung wines of each new vintage year. The array of beautiful trophies is anextraordinary, unique collection that depicts the wine industry’s rich history and heritage, with the oldest trophy already awarded in 1932.
The Cape of Good Hope Agricultural Society – which established the marketing name Agri-Expo in 1996 – has over the years been actively involved with the SA Young Wine Show as owner of this remarkable wine competition and maintains its commitment as patron until today. In the process, Agri-Expo has entrusted the impressive collection of gold and silver trophies annually awarded to the winners to the SANWSA as organiser.
Over the past six years the SA Young Wine Show boasts a major incentive for the two main trophy winners – in that a partnership between the organisers and Porex SA – a prominent Paarl-based supplier of machinery and winemaking equipment to the industryenables a sponsorship for the two respective winners of the General Smuts and Pietman Hugo Trophies for a six-day overseas trip.
At the same time, five financial partners have joined forces in support of this remarkable competition. They are prominent suppliers to the industry, namely Anchor Oenology, Enartis, Laffort, Nexus and Standard Bank.
Says Christo Pienaar, chairperson of the SANWSA, “We are excited to have our partners from the supplier ranks by our side to build out the SA Young Wine Show tothe industry’s benefit. Thereby they share our vision for a bright future for the Young Wine Show and as such also the country’s showpiece wines.”
The announcement of the National Trophy winners, as well as of the Pietman Hugo Trophy and famed General Smuts Trophy forthe overall winning wine for 2025, will this year be presented on 22 August at a gala dinner hosted by the Robertson Wine Show Association.
For more information, contact the SA Young Wine office at tel 021 863 1599 or email info@veritas.co.za, or visit www.youngwineshow.co.za.
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