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Groot Constantia scoops 12 top rated awards at 2019 SAWi Wine Awards

14 Jun 2019

The South African Wine Index (SAWi) Grand Wines Collection awards have named Groot Constantia winner of 12 of its top awards, rating the wine estate as the Top Dessert Wine Producer in South Africa, Top 10 Wine Producer and Top 10 White Wine Producer. In addition to these accolades, the estate won six Platinum as well as three Grand Gold awards for their wines.

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Platinum winners include the Groot Constantia Pinotage, Gouverneurs Reserve Red, Shiraz, Chardonnay, Gouverneurs Reserve White, and Grand Constance. The Grand Gold winners are the Groot Constantia Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cape Ruby wines.

The South African Wine Index was established with the aim of independently identifying South Africa’s best wines - South African Grand Wines. SAWi employs a unique 'algorithm which measures the performance and accolades of individual wines and compares and condenses the results from more than 100 competitions, reviews and listings over a period of 10 years – and expresses this as a single value.

The hard work of our wine-making team is clearly continuing to pay off and it is great to receive acknowledgement for all the hard work that has gone into the vineyards over the years and continues to go into the Groot Constantia vineyards.

"The South African Wine Index base their decisions on national and international wine show results over a period of 10 years and are therefore certainly the most objective rating system in South-Africa," says Boela Gerber, winemaker for Groot Constantia. "To receive a good rating one, therefore, needs to produce good quality wine over a wide spectrum and passage of time. This aggregate win means that Groot Constantia won this award based on consistent performance over 100 competitions over a period of 10 years."

"Wines scoring 93 or above are considered part of the 'Grand Wines Collection'. For Groot Constantia to have six wines awarded platinum and three awarded Grand Gold is a phenomenal achievement, especially because it is across so many different cultivars. This shows that we are not a one wine winery," says Gerber.

"Groot Constantia cannot be seen to be a red wine or white wine or sweet wine producer exclusively - but we are rather excelling at the production of a wide variety of cultivars over a long term period."

Establishing the right varietals

Jean Naudé, CEO of Groot Constantia says that over the years a lot of effort has gone into establishing the right varietals in the appropriate terroir on Groot Constantia.

"This was followed by close monitoring and fine tuning on an annual basis. The vineyard and winemaking teams have established seamless cooperation between themselves over the years, an absolute prerequisite to achieving a result of this nature. They have tapped into the versatility of the Groot Constantia terroir and again have proved why this Estate’s wine was so popular among European royalty more than two centuries ago."

"The hard work of our wine-making team is clearly continuing to pay off and it is great to receive acknowledgement for all the hard work that has gone into the vineyards over the years and continues to go into the Groot Constantia vineyards," says Naudé.

Click through for South Africa's top performing wines.