The Grand Gold was for Kleine Zalze’s Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021, a wine also selected by Concours Mondial as the show’s South African “Revelation” wine, with the Kleine Zalze Golds going to Vineyard Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, Vineyard Selection Chardonnay 2025 and Family Reserve Chardonnay 2025.
The Concours Mondial de Bruxelles is one of the world’s leading competitions for international wines. Some 6 700 wines from around the world were judged in the Concours Mondial’s Still Red and White Wine session held in Armenia this year.
The Grand Gold award and “Revelation” accolade for the Kleine Zalze Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 follows the Gold medal awarded to the same wine at this week’s Investec Trophy Wine Show, as well as the two trophies it won at the recent International Wine Challenge and a Gold medal at the 2026 Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters competition.
“The Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 is having a mercurial run in this year’s international and South African awards season,” says Kleine Zalze cellarmaster RJ Botha. “Awards and wine competitions become particularly relevant when your wines deliver consistently exceptional performances at such wine shows, and looking at the accolades bestowed on it over the past few weeks, this Family Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is doing just that.
“With another Concours Mondial award, a Gold medal, going to Kleine Zalze’s Vineyard Selection Cabernet Sauvignon 2023, it is apparent where our red wine focus lies. Like the Family Reserve, Kleine Zalze’s Vineyard Selection Cabernet Sauvignon is made from grapes grown in the Stellenbosch region, an area that has over decades proven itself as South Africa’s leading region for Cabernet Sauvignon. International wine awards, such as these we have won at this year’s Concours Mondial, attest to the region’s reputation for great Cabernet Sauvignon.”
Kleine Zalze’s two Gold medals for its Chardonnay wines – the Vineyard Selection Chardonnay and Family Reserve Chardonnay – underscored the reputation of 2025 as being recognised as one of the most exceptional vintages the Cape had experienced in recent years.
“The 2025 vintage followed on a cold, wet winter in the Cape winelands, after which mild conditions during spring and early summer led to harmonious, even growing conditions,” says Botha. “The result was Chardonnay grapes of precise and even ripeness, laying the foundations for wines of exceptional quality which we predicted and which has now been proven with these accolades at Concours Mondial.”