KWV victorious at SA Young Wine Show 2012

KWV

21 August 2012 by KWV


KWV reinforced its reputation as a leading South African producer of world-class wines last week when it was named champion in no less than seven categories - including best regional producer for the second consecutive year - at the South African National Young Wine Show annual awards.

In the days leading up to the national awards function in Stellenbosch on Friday, KWV wines repeated their outstanding performance of last year by again scoring the highest among producers in the Paarl Young Wine Show. This is the third time in four years that KWV has won this prestigious accolade.


Having collected a haul of trophies at the regional event, KWV went on to claim national titles as class winner in the categories for Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc (wooded).

For the national competition - South Africa’s oldest and biggest of its kind - more than 2 100 leading young wines from the country’s eight wine show regions competed. The aim of the competition is to judge the quality of wines within the year of production before they are finally blended and bottled. In this way, the industry can give recognition to the production capabilities of a wine cellar.


“Our wines performed very well, reinforcing 2012 as a particularly good year,” said KWV chief winemaker Richard Rowe. “We performed very well across varieties, and we’re particularly pleased to have won the best Paarl Producer Trophy again.”


A highlight for the KWV team was the achievements of its 2012 Pineau de Laborie - a ruby-styled wine that won the Champion Trophy for the Best Non-Muscat Fortified, a title KWV also won last year. By the very nature of the competition, very few of the wine entries are for sale or in their final form, such as the 2012 Pineau de Laborie, at the time of being judged.


“The success with our fortified wines is especially encouraging in the light of our decision in 2011 to bring fortified winemaking in-house,” said Richard Rowe.

Alongside the regional trophy for its fortified wine, KWV also claimed the Champion Trophies for Best Dry White Table Wine, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and Pinotage – awards it received in the previous year too. In addition to seven trophies, KWV collected five gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze awards.

This year, a total of 149 producers competed in the two-tiered SA Young Wine Show, which includes eight regional competitions with separate awards ceremonies, followed by the national championship. The roots of the event were laid in 1833. Entries are adjudicated by specialist panels of judges drawn from winemakers or wine experts with a formal qualification and specialist knowledge of specific wine styles.