Each year, Tim visits South Africa to taste and score as many wines as possible. Tim Atkin is an award-winning wine writer, photographer, and Master of Wine with 40 years of experience. He is co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge, the world’s most rigorously judged blind-tasting competition, and has won over 30 awards for his journalism and photography. He is deeply respected within the wine industry.
Tim sampled 2,000 wines from 425 wineries to complete this year’s edition. Among these were two wines awarded 100 points, two with 99 points, eight with 98 points, 28 with 97 points, and 212 wines scoring 95 points or more, representing 10.6% of all wines tasted.
This year, Beau Constantia had the privilege of presenting wines from their range to Tim and they are super proud of their results!
The champions for this year were:
PIERRE 2024 – 94 points, a blend of 96% Sauvignon Blanc and 4% Sémillon.
STELLA 2023 – 94 points, a Syrah with a splash of Viognier.
AIDAN 2022 – 93 points, a blend of mostly Merlot, with 20% Petit Verdot, 20% Syrah, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 8% Malbec.
CECILY 2024 – 92 points, a 100% Viognier.
LUCCA 2022 – 91 points, a blend of 52% Merlot clone MO343 and 48% Cabernet Franc.
This year, Tim had a surprise in store. For the first time in 13 years, he announced a shortlist of contenders for a set of special awards. Among them was Megan van der Merwe, Beau Constantia’s winemaker, viticulturist, and general manager, who was nominated for the Rising Star of the Year Award.
During the 95-Point Celebration event, Tim explained that this award was created to recognise young winemakers too young for his Young Winemaker of the Year award, with the cut-off for “young” being under 40 years of age. In deciding on the winner, Tim said he wanted to honour someone who stood out as his number-one “heroine.” He highlighted Megan’s achievements as the youngest winemaker in Constantia, holding a degree in Viticulture and Oenology, as well as completing UCT’s Business of Wine course where she graduated top of her class. Tim described Megan as not only “a force of courage, curiosity, and conviction” but more importantly “a force of nature”.
This has been an extraordinary year for Megan, and Tim was proud to share that she was announced as the winner of the Rising Star of the Year Award. Her team could not be prouder of this remarkable achievement.