VERITAS 2021

9 VERITAS AWARDS 2021

These competitions provided her the platform to work with many wine and spirits legends from all over the world. Her duties included organising award functions as well as the Top 100 Restaurant and Dine Awards. In 2011 she was part of the team who launched the Classic Wine Magazine in association with Classic FM SA. Here she continued using her expertise to manage all the tastings, awards and the day-to-day running of the magazine. Celia started her own business in 2014, working for amongst others, the Platter guide, International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) and Juliet Cullinan. Her main aim was to pay forward to the industry that gave her so much joy; she did this through organising many fundraisers. She is continuing to play an important part in managing a variety of competitions including Mosaic Top 5 Pinot Noir, The Merit Awards and The Aurora International Taste Challenge. Her love for Malbec inspired her to start the Malbec Challenge, as well as the Cabernet Franc Challenge with the late Cobie van Oort. Her passion is wine and her aim is to highlight these varieties to the consumers – all while still running audited competitions professionally at the lowest cost to producers. MARIUS LABUSCHAGNE Marius was born in Windhoek, completed his schooling at Boyshigh in Paarl and obtained his degree in journalism at Stellenbosch University. Marius’s passion for wine writing has been cultivated over more than forty years. By 1982 he had been a regular reporter and editor for Die Burgers’s former weekly insert “Die Burger Boland” with wine news featuring prime. In 1985 Labuschagne joined Wynboer magazine (now WineLand) as assistant editor; a position he held for eight years. Here he continued to add to his vast knowledge of the wine industry with a wide variety of articles. In later years, Marius started writing on a freelance basis for numerous newspapers, publications and radio columns. He launchedML Communications which provides wine news and information to the media with intent to put the spotlight on the Cape Winelands and its wines. Of his first clients were the Veritas Awards and SA Young Wine Show where he served for six years as the media consultant for these competitions. He also handled media liaison and marketing for the Pinotage Association and Absa Top 10 Pinotage Competition for 13 years.