As this year gallops to the finishing post, Diemersdal can look back at 2021 as being one of the most successful years in its history, the result of the multiple awards the estate’s wines won at various local and international competitions.
What has made these accolades more compelling, is that the awards were bestowed on a diverse range of wine varieties, underscoring Diemersdal’s ability of making some of the best red and white wines in South Africa.
Diemersdal’s golden year ended on a high note, receiving two 5-star accolades in the 2022 edition of the Platter’s Guide to South African Wines, South Africa’s leading wine publication. The 5-star ratings went to wines made from two grape varieties. Diemersdal has now become especially renowned for, going to The Journal Sauvignon Blanc 2020 and The Journal Pinotage 2019.
Topping the long list of accolades for 2021 would have to be the resounding success at the Old Mutual Trophy Wine Show, one of South Africa’s leading wine competitions and known for its particularly high standards of judging. At this year’s competition, Diemersdal was named Best Producer of the show, which also celebrated its 20th rendition as a foremost wine event. Diemersdal came out at the top of the heap of the entries representing the finest the Cape has to offer, winning the Trophy for Best Pinotage with its Pinotage Reserve 2019 and gold medals for the Private Collection Bordeaux Blend 2017 and The Journal Cabernet Sauvignon 2018.
Diemersdal notched another auspicious achievement in August when the estate staked a place as one of the most successful producers in the history of the annual Absa Top 10 Pinotage Trophy awards by raking in its 10th Top 10 Trophy in arguably the world’s most important competition for wines made from the Pinotage grape. Diemersdal`s The Journal Pinotage 2019 was selected as one of the Top 10 winners in this annual competition, which this year was held for the 25th time.
This award places Diemersdal among the top three producers in the history of the Absa Top 10 competition.
In Spring, it was time for the FNB Top 10 Sauvignon Blanc competition which annually seeks the best 10 wines in South Africa made from the grape for which Diemersdal has built a formidable reputation. After winning four Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 awards in a row with its revolutionary Winter Ferment Sauvignon Blanc, Diemersdal Estate in Durbanville this year nabbed its fifth consecutive Top 10 Award with the Diemersdal Sauvignon Blanc Reserve 2021.
From 2017 to 2020, Diemersdal`s Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 awards went to the Winter Ferment, a unique wine made from Sauvignon Blanc juice frozen at harvest
and fermented six months later, a process leading to a distinctive tropical fruit profile. At this year's Sauvignon Blanc Top 10 competition, it was the estate's Sauvignon
Blanc Reserve 2021 that took the laurels, a wine made to minimum intervention principles with the sole aim of expressing the terroir of Diemersdal`s Durbanville
location.
Diemersdal’s international reputation for Sauvignon Blanc was underscored at the 2021 Concours Mondial du Sauvignon in Brussels where Diemersdal The Journal Sauvignon Blanc 2019, a classical oak-matured Sauvignon Blanc, won a gold medal.
Also on the international competition front, all three wines in The Journal range achieved gold medals at this year’s Decanter World Wine Awards, recognised as one of the wine world’s most prestigious wine competitions which was held in London. Decanter gold medals went to Diemersdal’s The Journal Cabernet Sauvignon 2019, The Journal Pinotage 2019 and The Journal Sauvignon Blanc 2020.
Thys Louw, sixth generation owner-winemaker at Diemersdal, says the success at these local and international competitions is an important indicator of Diemersdal’s commitment to quality throughout its diverse wine range, as well as the unique award-winning features the estate’s wines show in expressing the unique Durbanville terroir. “While these accolades honour the farm’s viticulture and cellar teams, their most important role is in showing the wine consumer that the Diemersdal label is associated with consistent quality which has been recognised by esteemed wine judges from South Africa and the rest of the world,” he says.