Wellington Wines' Wooded Pinotage Wins Genl Smuts Trophy as SA Champion Young Wine 2026

A wooded Pinotage from Wellington Wines has been crowned as the SA Champion Young Wine of 2026, after also being named as the Best Pinotage at the competitive SA Young Wine Show – thereby bagging the prestigious Genl Smuts Trophy for the third time as overall winner.

Wellington also reached this extraordinary achievement in 2018 – also with a Pinotage wine – as well as in 2023 with a Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is only the fourth time that a Pinotage triumphed as South Africa’s Best Young Wine in the past 20 years, after the big trophy was won by Wamakersvallei Cellar for the first time in 2007 – before being amalgamated with Wellington Wines in 2013. Badsberg Cellar followed in 2016 and Wellington Cellar won this trophy with a Pinotage in 2018.

The Genl Smuts Trophy was awarded this year for the 75th time since the competition’s inception 194 years ago, today known as the second oldest of its kind in the world.

The Winner of the Genl Smuts Trophy 2026: Wellington Wines with their wooded Pinotage Breyton Millford GM Agri-Expo with the team from Wellington wines – Christo Smit, Erik van Wyk, Daniel Slabber, Francois van Niekerk and Christo Pienaar Chairman SANWSA.

KWV won the Pietman Hugo Trophy for the third time as the winery scoring the most points with its five best entries, the second successive time KWV walks away with this trophy after also clinching it last year and in 2015. They excelled by winning three National Trophies: KWV Sauvignon Blanc (wooded) for Best Other Red Cultivar, KWV Petit Verdot (wooded) for Best Other Red Cultivar, and KWV Petit Verdot/Pinotage/Carignan (wooded) for Best Red Blend.

The winner of the Pietman Hugo Trophy for the winery with the best five entries: KWVAnneke du Plessis KWV, Kobus vd Merwe KWV, Christo Pienaar Chairman SANWSA, Izéle van Blerk KWV, Marco Ventrella and Masibulele Soko KWV and Breyton Millford GM Agri-Expo.

Montagu winery also excelled with two National Champions, the Champion Dessert Wine with a Red Jerepigo and the Champion Muscadel with a Red Muscadel/White Muscadel blend.

This annual show for wines produced in the current vintage year is presented by the SA National Wine Show Association (SANWSA) in collaboration with Agri-Expo, which is closely associated with this remarkable competition as the original owner, while maintaining its commitment as patron until this very day.

The SA Young Wine Show this year made history in the sense that a new region has been added to the original eight regions by the SANWSA. The wine producers of Cape Town, which was demarcated as a Wine of Origin area in 2017, applied to be able to participate as a new region, having been part of Stellenbosch until last year. Cape Town, one of the 12 Great Wine Capitals of the World, includes the wards Durbanville, Constantia, Hout Bay, and Philadelphia. They have impressed now from the onset by yielding two National Champions, four class winners and five gold medals.

The competition’s impressive National Trophies were today (21 August) handed over at a glamorous dinner hosted by Agri-Expo in the Percheron Hall at Elsenburg Agricultural College. Altogether 52 wines achieved Class Winner Status and 117 received Gold Medals.

This year’s total entries were slightly down – but the almost 1 400 wines judged bear testimony to the oldest wine show in South Africa maintaining its momentum. The judges were unanimous that the quality of the 2026 wines was excellent once again, despite a challenging harvest period which thoroughly put the technical expertise of the viticulturists and winemakers to the test.

This year’s 1 387 entries were evaluated by 88 specialist judges on 13 panels. The judging took place at the end of July in die Pavilion Hall at Nederburg Wines in Paarl over a five-day period, whereafter the champions were identified in 17 classes, as well as the two trophies for Best Wine and Best Producer. The specialised panels each comprised five members and each panel was joined by a sixth trainee judge without their scores being included in the calculations.

A special bottle sticker was introduced in 2013 to feature on the bottles of the Genl Smuts Trophy winner and thereby show off the overall best wine of the year in the marketplace. This has resulted in more top trophy winners being bottled as such in recent years instead of ‘losing their identity’ through further blending.

The rest the SA Champions are:

• Chardonnay: Stettyn Wine Cellar Chardonnay
• Chenin Blanc: Groot Phesantekraal Chenin Blanc (wooded)
• Sémillon: La Motte Sémillon (wooded)
• Other White Cultivar: De Wet Cellar Weisser Riesling
• Whie Blended Wine: Badsberg Cellar Chardonnay/Chenin Blanc
• Natural Sweet Wine: Perdeberg Wines Chenin Blanc Natural Sweet White Wine (wooded)
• Noble Late Harvest Wine: Bon Courage Wine Estate Noble Late Harvest (wooded)
• Cabernet Sauvignon: Alto Wine Estate Cabernet Sauvignon (wooded)
• Shiraz: Diemersdal Wine Estate Shiraz (wooded)
• Merlot: Montagu Winery Merlot
• Cape Style: Boplaas Estate Any Other Cape Style or blend

Paarl excelled as wine region with the best performance and bagged seven National Trophies, followed by Klein Karoo with three, Breedekloof/Worcester, Cape Town and Robertson with two each, and Stellenbosch, one.

All the 2026 SA Champions Young Wine Show Trophy Winners:Front: Jaco Booysen Badsberg Cellar, Tertius Jonck De Wet Cellar, JM Crafford Stettyn Cellar, Lodewyk Botha Perdeberg Wines, Izéle van BLerk KWV, (Pietman Hugo Trophy), Daniel Slabber Wellington Wines (Genl Smuts Trophy), André Bruwer (Jnr) Bon Courage Estate, Margaux Nel Boplaas Estate, Hermias Vollgraaff Montagu Wines, Chris de Villiers Montagu Wines, Kobus van der Merwe KWV Back: Christo Pienaar Chairman SA National Wine Show Association, Juandré Bruwer Diemersdal Estate, Richard Schroeder Groot Phesantekraal, Edwin Grace La Motte, Bertho van der Westhuizen Alto Estate, James Ochse Leopards Leap Wines, Christo Smit Wellington Wines, Masibulele Soko KWV, Anneke du Plessis KWV, Breyton Millford General Manager Agri-Expo

The SA Young Wine Show Chairperson, Christo Pienaar, said that this year’s quality of the young wines impressed despite the challenging circumstances. The main cultivars yielded excellent wines throughout, with strong cultivar concentration, balanced acidity and sugars, as well as excellent colour development in red wines. Consumers can look forward to wines made this year that can be enjoyed once reaching the market in the bottle.

“It’s exciting to welcome Cape Town to the SA Young Wine Show as a new region and pleasing that the national winners are from all over the country’s wine production areas, as well as from a variety of wine types. My congratulations to all on their achievements and a big thank you for their ongoing support.

“The SA Young Wine Show remains relevant for the industry after 194 years. It provides a valuable first glance at the quality and potential of the new vintage, as well as indications of new wines and new trends. Winemakers and viticulturists also receive acknowledgement for their efforts during the vintage year, while quality and competition are promoted. Young talent is being advanced at the same time and new and upcoming winemakers get the opportunity to showcase their expertise and wines,” Pienaar added.

The organisers emphasised that the SA Young Wine Show is generously supported by the industry and financial partners have over the past years again committed themselves to building out the show. The five companies involved are well-known in the industry, namely Porex, Anchor Oenology, Enartis, Laffort and Nexus. Their highly appreciated contributions will ensure the bright future of the Young Wine Show, known as “the jewel of the industry”.

Overseas visit for top winemakers

One winemaker each from Wellington Wines and KWV as the winners of the Genl Smuts and Pietman Hugo Trophies respectively can look forward to a sponsored six-day overseas trip – thanks to a partnership since 2019 between the SANWSA and Porex – a prominent Paarl-based supplier of machinery and winemaking products to the industry.

The complete judges’ report is available at www.youngwineshow.co.za

Contact Bennie Howard, Marketing Consultant, or Elsabé Ferreira, General Manager for more information at tel 021 863 1599 or email .