VERITAS 2025

1 VERITAS AWARDS 2025

VERITAS AWARDS CELEBRATED IN GRAND STYLE It was an evening of excitement and celebration at the stylish 35th Veritas Awards, featuring another record number of medals to well-known brands, as well as novices. At the same time, the Duimpie Bayly Vertex trophy for the best wine entered was clinched for a second time in a row by the KWV The Mentors Perold 2022, a Pinotage/Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec. It is the fourth time that a Red Blend clinches the Vertex Award. At the glamorous dinner known as the “Oscars” of the wine industry that was held in the Ballroom of the CTICC in Cape Town, guests celebrated the Veritas Awards and enjoyed an evening of splendid food, award winning wines and entertainment. The key sponsors of Veritas – SA Litho and Deloitte – were again joined by KykNet’s Ontbytsake TV, Nashua, Dry Ice International, Porex SA and newcomers Unitrans and Agrimark/New Holland. Veritas gladly welcomes its partners and appreciates their enthusiastic support and commitment in presenting the Veritas Awards. The Veritas tradition to honour industry leaders since 2009, was continued this year. Thereby, three leading personalities received the 2025 Living Legend Scroll of Honour for their dedication to and enthusiasm and passion for the domestic wine and brandy industries. They are Charles Back, Michael Back and Johan Malan. We are proud to announce that a record number of 88 Double Gold and 182 Gold awards were handed out this year, together with 249 Silver Outstanding, 434 Silver and 188 Bronze. The Veritas Awards drew 1 205 entries. The seven most keenly contested categories in terms of entries received were: Red Blends (149), Sauvignon Blanc (130), Chenin Blanc (113), Chardonnay (104), Pinotage (100), Cabernet Sauvignon (98) and Shiraz (84). The judging panels consisted of five members each and we welcomed four international judges at the judging, sponsored by Dry Ice International. They were Adero Achola (Kenya), Christine Austin (UK), Treve Ring (Canada), Bernard Stramwasser (Canada), Yoshiko Takahashi (Japan) and Joe Wadsack (UK). Wine lovers will be able to use VinoVeritas by CTP, the updated official shop window for Veritas Awards winners – making South Africa’s most celebrated wines and brandies easy to discover and order the Double Gold and Gold winners. Click to shop at https://vinoveritasbyctp.co.za Users of the VinoVeritas by CTP shop window, can join us at the regular public wine tasting countrywide, presented under the Deloitte banner, and taste and buy as they work their way around the room with the awesome selection of Double Gold and Gold wines. We are delighted that Deloitte fulfils this important marketing role for Veritas and the wine industry with their sponsorship. These tastings will be held on 23 October in Cape Town, 28 October in Durban and 5 November in Johannesburg. All the tastings will take place at the Deloitte premises in each city. See further information at www.veritas.co.za PorexSA will continue to sponsor the tasting of the Double Gold wines in London, as well as flying the winner of the Duimpie Bayly Vertex award to the UK to attend this event. We are thrilled to have KykNet’s Ontbytsake as our TV sponsor and Nashua, Unitrans and Agrimark as our financial partners for the gala dinner. We are extremely honoured and proud to present the Veritas Awards to the wine consumers both locally and overseas on behalf of the SA Wine Industry. We trust that you will enjoy the amazing selection of outstanding South African Wines awarded by Veritas, either at your home or in your favourite restaurant.

Christo Pienaar CHAIRPERSON VERITAS AWARDS