Women winemakers take top honours at Diners Club awards

Kiara Scott Farmer and Mika Engelbrecht are the winners of the 2024 Diners Club Winemaker and Young Winemaker of the Year awards which were held at the weekend.

With the Winemaker of the Year award, Diners Club encourages local winemakers to raise the standard of wines produced in SA, and the Young Winemaker of the Year award encourages winemakers under the age of 30 to develop their skills, express their individuality, and add to the future prestige of SA wines internationally.

The Winemaker and Young Winemaker awards focus on quality and the recognition of excellence and are among the country’s most prestigious and most-respected wine industry competitions.

The awards are presented to winemakers who produce a wine that the judging panel considers to be the best in the two specified categories for the annual competition. This year, the category for the 44th Winemaker of the Year award was Chenin Blanc, with Red Wine the category for the 24th Young Winemaker of the Year award. As in previous years, winemakers could be shortlisted for more than one submission. These awards are open to all in the SA wine industry at no cost, thus affording all winemakers an equal opportunity.

This year’s Diners Club Winemaker of the Year (Category Chenin Blanc), Kiara Scott Farmer delighted the judges with her Brookdale Old Vine Chenin Blanc 2022. The 2024 Diners Club Young Winemaker of the Year, Mika Engelbrecht, received her award (Red Wines Category) for her Neethlingshof Estate Range Cabernet Sauvignon 2022.

The winning winemaker received R50,000 and the winning young winemaker received R25,000. In addition, both winners received a round-trip air ticket to a wine-producing region.

The 2024 Diners Club Winemaker of The Year Judges were Carrie Adams, Winnie Bowman, Yegas Naidoo, Shane Mumba, Denzel Swarts and Johann Fourie.