SANWSA adds Novare SA Terroir Wine Awards to its stable

The South African National Wine Show Association (SANWSA), which represents two of South Africa’s premier 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 in the world, will now be presented under its banner.

SANWSA’s chairman, Christo Pienaar, describes this as one of the most important announcements about wine shows in the South African wine industry.

Fourteen years ago, sANWSA made an agreement with the founder of SA Terroir Wine Awards, Marius Labuschagne, to take over and host this competition in the future.

“We are very excited to take such a specialist wine competition under our wing and further expand it with our knowledge and experience built up over the years from other competitions. The SANWSA is an industry organisation that hosts shows on behalf of the SA wine industry and we believe this is the ideal home for this terroir-driven competition.”

Labuschagne, a seasoned wine journalist - who worked at KWV years ago as assistant editor of the then Wynboer magazine (today WineLand) and later established his own media consulting business, ML Communications - saw the gap in 2005 to start the terroir competition.

This competition commends the best wines that are highlighted by different soil and climatic factors in different areas. Only wines certified as Wine of Origin (WO) of a Single Vineyard, Estate, Ward or District (with no more than one ward) may be entered. It is one of the most exclusive wine competitions in the world due to the Wine of Origin rules applied to it.

“As the Wine of Origin Scheme is 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 proprietor. South Africa has one of the leading origin systems in the world and therefore it is extremely suitable that this competition be part of the industry,” says Labuschagne.

The Cape Winelands boasts several sites that produce top quality wines of all cultivars and styles and with the WO system it is possible to judge only wines that truly represent specific soil and climate. It is informative every year to see which terrain produces the best wine from any cultivar. Without the Wine and Spirit Board and SA Wine Industry Information & Systems (Sawis) this competition could not exist and therefore it is an integral part of SA’s wine industry.

Novare, a leading independent financial services company, which is at the forefront of the Terroir Wine competition, has announced that it will continue its sponsorship in partnership with the SANWSA.

With this step, the SANDSA is strengthening its position as a leader in the wine show offering in South Africa. The SA Young Wine Show is one of the world’s oldest wine shows, dating back to 1833, and Veritas (since 1990) is the oldest local wine show for bottled and labeled wines.