Nederburg wins top honours at Michelangelo Awards

Nederburg has won the Bidvest Top SA Producer Trophy at the Michelangelo International Wine & Spirits Awards 2022. A Michelangelo trophy wine represents both the top 1.1% of all entries received, as well as best in class.

Nederburg’s trophy winning cabernet sauvignon features fruits sourced from Paarl and Darling in the Western Cape. The prize-winning wine was also matured in French oak barrels for 30 months.

Nederburg cellar master, Samuel Viljoen, says the team is hugely excited about its recent accomplishments.

“We’re on a roll – raking in the awards for wines across our multi-tiered range, from our ultra-premium Private Bins to more accessible offerings such as the wines that form part of our The Winemasters collection,” he says.

Only 1 200 litres of this wine were bottled. 

“It demonstrates the careful attention to detail applied in every step of the winemaking process, no matter the wines involved, and that our commitment to ongoing innovation and best practice in the vineyards and the cellar, keeps paying off,” says Viljoen.

Judges rank SA white wines best

Nederburg has also earned 13 prestigious Michelangelo platinum, double gold and gold medals. The award-winning winery also walked away with the Jetcraft Cabernet Sauvignon trophy awarded for its Private Bin R163 Cabernet Sauvignon 2009.

“Recognition such as this serves as a great motivator for our cellar and viticulture teams to keep exploring, experimenting and bettering their best efforts,” says Viljoen.

This year’s sauvignon blanc expert, Ben Glover from Marlborough in New Zealand, says South African sauvignon blanc definitely have the potential to be a contender on the world stage.

“The refinement and sophistication of the sauvignon blancs on the judges’ line-up showed an intriguing diversity,” he says.

“This being the biggest white wine category in this year’s competition with close on 200 entries, there was obviously always going to be a number of wines lacking the poise and intensity of the cultivar, as is the case in every competition of this size,” he adds.

“But there have been some really brilliant wines where intelligent, deft wooding has been used or the winegrower is looking at solids and skins as a function. For complexity and intrigue the wines also spent a bit of time on the lees. These are very refined and complex, great and interesting sauvignon blanc wines that would impress any wine judge at any competition in the world.“

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