Stellenrust has seen immense recognition during 2023. The crown jewel in the awards packet must be the Diners Club South African Winemaker of the year award given to Tertius for his ArtiSons BB Hill Shiraz 2020. This in the light of Herman du Preez taking the Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year award in both 2019 and 2021 with the White Cinsault.
The ArtiSons range has grown from strength to strength in recent times and the proof is in the proverbial pudding. A further 3 x 5 star wines were awarded for the Basket Child Cinsault 2021 (first release), the BB Hill Shiraz and the Mothership Chenin Blanc 2022 walking away with a massive 97 point rating in the annual Platter's South African Wine Guide.
The Stellenrust wines are not standing back with two of the only five 98-point wines in this year’s Platter's Guide going to Stellenrust for the 58 Barrel fermented Chenin Blanc and the Old Bush vine (Secrets & Lies) Chenin Blanc 2022. To top it all, the Chenins kicked some serious dirt in stiff competitors’ eyes walking away with the Best Chenin blanc in South Africa in the guide, in addition to the 3 five star wines awarded, with the Douwe Steyn Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 claiming top honours of 5 star Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignons.
The Drinks Business's Global Chenin Blanc Masters, judged by Masters of Wine, gave the 58 Barrel fermented Chenin Blanc a nod taking away the highest accolade of Master Chenin Blanc and more recently the Global Fine Wine Challenge held in Australia, showed the 58 Barrel fermented Chenin Blanc come out tops and taking the trophy for non-Aromatic white wines amongst stiff competitors of the New World.
Master of Wine and one of the most respected wine critics with a vast knowledge of South African wine, Tim Atkin MW, praised both ArtiSons and Stellenrust. After tasting the 2022 Chenins, Tim commented that this was probably one of the best handling of Chenin blanc in the 2022 vintage from South Africa and rated the Mothership Chenin Blanc amongst his top Chenins in his annual South African report with 96 points. This in the light of many other 94, 93 and 90+ point wines dished out by the master himself to Stellenrust.
Stellenrust further sealed the Chenin deal by achieving a record number of 4 Chenin blancs under the Top 10 in this year’s Standard Bank Top 10 Chenin Blanc challenge. Stellenrust still holds the record for the producer who have landed both a Top 10 Chenin and a Top 10 Pinotage with the Cornerstone Pinotage from one winery in one year.
The list continues with all our other super premium wines reaching the Platter 4.5 star mark and the premium range with a minimum score of 4 out of 5 stars – the Shiraz taking 4.5 stars in the annual Platter’s wine guide.
We want to thank all our partners and customers as none of our success would have been possible without your continued support of Stellenrust, ArtiSons and their families. We pride ourselves in our partners and hope that we can build 2024 to an even higher level.
