We are delighted to announce that La Motte is the 2025 winner of the General Smuts Trophy for the Champion South African Young Wine!
The winning entry is a sensational Sémillon that brings us exceptional joy in the cellar vintage after vintage. After being a regular winner of its category and region over the past years, being the national champion for 2025 has brought grateful hearts and beaming smiles - and even a few tears of joy.
The South African Young Wine Show dates to 1833 and is the oldest wine show in the Southern Hemisphere and pretty much the world and therefore of exceptional value to winemaking teams as it recognises the quality of the vintage before maturation and marketing get involved.
The sensational Sémillon in the La Motte Cellar have been entered into the Young Wine Competition vintage after vintage. Supporting the cellar team’s intuition, the wine has been recognised by the SA Young Wine Show as the Class winner, Paarl Regional Champion for Other Dry White Cultivars, the Franschhoek Champion and SA Champion Semillon in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023.
But then came 2025. A very good South African vintage and another spectacular Sémillon in our cellar! And at the 2025 Young Wine Show Awards Ceremony on Friday, 22 August, La Motte’s Sémillon was a favourite as it came first in all the varietal and regional categories it was entered into. It then brought beaming smiles to our faces as it excelled by winning the prestigious General Smuts Trophy as the overall South African Young Wine!
Since the launch of the competition 193 years ago, the General Smuts Trophy was awarded for the 74th time this year and only for the second time in more than 30 years it was awarded to a Sémillon wine. (Flagstone Sémillon won in 2010)
The La Motte team is elated to host the magnificent piece of silverware for the next year.
Featured image:
Fltr
Back: Lehani Langenhoven, Aya Mgweba, Ashwill Malies, Brian Sekhobo, Bista Mzingelwa
Front: Emile Manuel, Kobie Lochner, Edwin Grace, Edmund Terblanche, Hein Koegelenberg, Jenny Fredericks
