Bellevue wins the Jarnac Cooperage Malbec Challenge 2025

Thursday, 30 October, 2025

Malbec Challenge

Bellevue Malbec 2022 was crowned the winner of this year's Jarnac Cooperage Malbec Challenge.

The results of the 2025 Jarnac Cooperage Malbec Challenge was announced on Thursday, 16 October 2025 at an awards lunch at The Copper Kettle in Raithby.

The Challenge judging by a panel of three tasters using the international 100 point system, took place on 25 September 2025 in Cape Town. The panel consisting of three Cape Wine Masters: Christine Rudman (chair); Janine van Zyl, qualified sommelier and recent CWM graduate; and Lizette Tolken, HR manager at Boekenhoutskloof in Franschhoek. The wines were judged blind, as is usual with these challenges, and no discussion took place until after the score sheets had been handed to the auditor. The competition was audited by Cecil Kilpin & Co, and organised by Events by Celia in accordance with international standards.

A juicy, soft-skinned variety, Malbec requires care in the vineyard to avoid over-cropping or sunburn damage, and in the cellar quick and careful fermentation to prevent oxidation. The winning wines mainly used either only older oak or a combination of new and used barrels, to showcase the succulent drinkability part of its character. Clearly there is a growing understanding of what the variety needs, and growing winemaker and viticulturist confidence was reflected in the wines, stylistically different but most of them admirable. Plantings are still small, well under 1% of vineyards.

There was more of a geographic spread of origins than in the past, the wines came from Stellenbosch or Simonsberg-Paarl, from Banghoek, Paarl, Cape Town, and further afield, from Breedekloof, Nuy, Robertson, Darling and Walker Bay. The different origins reflected in the wines, and overall the panel was impressed by the fruit concentration and typicity, agreeing that the majority had the ability to age, with well-considered oaking and tannin structure.

Prices ranged from under R100 up to R655 for a 2018 vintage, with the majority in the R200-R400 bracket. It is a measure of the growing market appreciation of quality that the prices have been increasing, justifyingly so, in the opinion of the panel. Vintages ranged from 2018, as already mentioned, through to 2025, with the majority in the 2021 to 2023 bracket. The older wines confirmed how well Malbec can age, while the younger ones showed just how attractively drinkable even current release wines can be.

As a category, Malbec performed very well, with 15 wines earning a Gold medal (90+ points), and 5 wines Silver (80-89 points).

The winning wine was Bellevue 2022, from an historic estate in the Bottelary area of Stellenbosch. Bought in 1861 by Dirk Cloete Morkel, it has been farmed by four generations of his family. Besides old vineyards, its significance includes planting one of the earliest Pinotage vineyards, in 1953. As written on their website “Bellevue’s Malbec is one of kind, bold and enchanting, our Wild Child.” A delicious one at that.

The competition has a generous sponsor, Tonnellerie de Jarnac. The winning winery, Bellevue Wine Estate, received a Tonnellerie De Jarnac barrel. Their official local agent is Vinco Enology.

In previous challenges, when the winning winemakers were asked what had inspired them to plant Malbec, the answers ranged from for it to be part of the classic 5-variety Bordeaux blend, or because they had visited countries where Malbec is widely grown, like Argentina or Cahors in France, and were impressed by it.