May de Lencquesaing has had her carreer recognised by being awarded with the Lifetime Achievement Award for this years annual International Wine Challenge. The event in which May de Lencquesaing was honoured took place at the Hilton Park Lane in London, with a sell out audience in attendance. Those attending the International Wine Challenge were winemakers, restaurateurs, trade and press that are a part of the industry around the world.
The IWC Lifetime Achievement award is given to a person in the industry who has demonstrated a significant degree of dedication and commitment in a way that has led to a notable impact on the global wine industry. The International Wine Challenge is widely thought to be one of the world’s most meticulously judged wine competition and is in its 34th year.
Madame de Lencquesaing has a family history of wine merchants and growers dating back to the end of the 18th century. , The family descends from the Miailhe family who have owned or partly owned several of the great Chateaux in Bordeaux. May de Lencquesaing spent a great number of years travelling around the world with her late husband General Hervé de Lencquesaing. May has been operating the family business since 1978, and after having a successful period as the head of the Pichon Lalande, sold the estate to Champagne Louis Roederer in 2007. This transaction took place in order to let her concentrate on the next development being planned.
May de Lencquesaing, or La Generale, as she became known during her time at Pichon Lalande, has been an innovative part of the wine industry and saw the potential that South Africa’s microclimate offered to grow world class wines. With her belief in the opportunities in South Africa, in 2003, at the age of 78 she bought a fruit farm which has been transformed now to become the Glenelly Estate in Stellenbosch. Currently May de Lencquesaing is reshaping Glenelly with the help of her two grandsons in order to transform it into one of South Africa’s pre-eminent Estates.