KWV And Veritas Highlight Award-Winning South African Wines On International Stage

The latest Veritas Awards Double Gold annual tasting will be held at the highly acclaimed High Timber Restaurant on the banks of the River Thames in London on Monday 8 June 2026 in collaboration with Porex SA.

This proud event will feature the finest wines from the 2025 showdown, including the overall winner – namely the Duimpie Bayly Vertex Trophy laureate – in the form of the KWV The Mentors Perold 2022, a Cape Blend of Pinotage/Shiraz/Cabernet Sauvignon/Malbec.

The first such Veritas tasting in London was presented in 2019 as an initiative to highlight the top achievers from the Veritas Awards, South Africa’s premier wine show, aimed at highlighting the international standard of the excelling entries.

This showpiece tasting will be hosted by Izele van Blerk, senior winemaker of KWV, the leading wine and spirits producer based in Paarl, and Lionel Dickens, Managing Director of Porex SA, the prominent Filtration & Separation supplier to the local food and beverage industry.

Prominent wine writers, members of the trade and other dignitaries will be attending the sit-down tasting conducted by Ms Van Blerk. The tasting of all the competition’s Double Gold wines and some selected brandies will be available at the walk-around tasting afterwards to a large group of invited guests at the High Timber Restaurant, known for its excellent South African cuisine.

The London tasting takes place thanks to a partnership between Veritas and Porex SA. Says MD Lionel Dickens, “As Porex SA, we sponsor the pinnacle Veritas Vertex Award as support in promoting the country’s top-end wines in the international market. At the same time, we supply the best possible equipment to South Africa to assist our clients in producing the best wines to compete globally.”

Veritas has earned the status as South Africa’s most authoritative competition for market-ready wines and brandies, while being the oldest and most prominent contest of its kind in this country, dating back to 1991.

Veritas chairperson, Christo Pienaar, says, “We are delighted to present this exclusive tasting in collaboration with Porex, where the Veritas Double Gold Award winners are taken to the next level of excellence, enhancing the image of South Africa’s quality wines internationally.”