The SA Young Wine Show is one of the oldest wine competitions in the world, dating back to 1833 and is now in its 193rd year.
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 since 1833 as owner of this remarkable competition and maintains its commitment as patron until this very day. Agri-Expo has entrusted the SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) since its founding in 1976 as organiser with the impressive collection of gold and silver trophies which are annually awarded to the winning wines.
The young wines of 2025 entered are competing for 17 coveted trophies in the various classes, with only one of them to be crowned as this year’s overall champion wine, thereby to receive the sought-after General Smuts Trophy which has been at stake since 1952. At the same time, the Pietman Hugo Trophy will be awarded to the cellar scoring the highest total points for entries in five categories.
As the practice has been over all the years, specialist judges are appointed to all the panels to ensure that the best judging expertise is harnessed to identify the winners. The SA Young Wine Show is proud to present the opportunity to train young tasters; hence a trainee judge joins each panel of five members to be schooled for future shows.
Altogether 14 panels with 88 judges are gathered at Nederburg this week to identify the best young wines of this year.
The categories attracting the most entries this year for white wines were Sauvignon Blanc, Chenin Blanc, White Blends, Other White Cultivars and Chardonnay, while under red wines, they were Other Red Cultivars, Red Blends, Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinotage, Shiraz and Merlot.
There are 17 competing categories for SA Champion glory. For white wines they are Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Sémillon, Other White Cultivars, White Blends, Natural Sweet White Wineand Noble Late Harvest. Among the red wines, trophies are awarded for best Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Pinotage, Shiraz, Other Red Cultivars and Red Blends. The trophies in the fortified class comprise exceptional Cape Port Styles, Dessert Wines and Muscadels.
Some of the panel chairmen at SA Young Wine Show Judging: Anton Swarts (Cape Wine Master), Pieter-Neil Rossouw, Bertho van der Westhuizen, Christo Pienaar Chairman of SAYWS, Albertus Louw, Klaas Stoffberg, Bennie Howard Vice-Chairman SAYWS and Fanie Geyser
The comprehensive judging process holds good news for wine lovers in the sense that South Africa has once again yielded an excellent wine crop. Winemakers agree that wines of outstanding quality were made this year thanks to an excellent growing season and outstanding grape quality. Indications are that the harvest will yield wines with remarkable fruit expression, freshness, and complexity. Consumers can look forward to enjoying the 2025 vintage wines when bottled and reaching the market.
“We experienced a really great vintage this year, with the young wines showing exceptional quality and this positive industry mood is also reflected in the increased entry of wines from all the areas,” said SANWSA chairperson, Christo Pienaar.
In the past six years the Young Wine Show has been boasting major encouragement for the two main trophy winners. A partnership between the organisers and Porex SA – a prominent Paarl-based supplier of machinery and winemaking equipment to the industry – means that the two respective winners of the General Smuts and Pietman Hugo Trophies are sponsored for a trip to overseas wine countries.
The four financial partners who joined the Young Wines Show over the past two years, are well-known suppliers to the industry, namely Anchor Oenology, Enartis, Laffort and Nexus. Their representatives are visitingthe week-long judging at Nederburg.
Said Bennie Howard, vice-chairperson of the SANWSA, “The generous support from all our partners in this remarkable South African wine show that benefits the whole industry, is an example of their client involvement. Thereby, they ensure a bright future for ‘the jewel of the wine industry’, as the SA Young Wine Show is fondly known.”
The awards function will be presented by the Robertson Young Wine Show on Friday 22 August at The Key venue, near Robertson. The event will be preceded by a tasting of all the Gold medal winners of 2025 at the Robertson winery.
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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