Still a while to wait for the Cab Franc Challenge winner

04/2024 Mike Froud Leave a comment

THERE ISN’T much of South Africa’s 2024 Cab Franc Challenge winner, and at the time of writing – after the results went public, a week after the awards presentation – the bottles had yet to be labelled, let alone released onto the market! Hopefully the 2021 vintage of Mitre’s Edge Cabernet Franc WO Simonsberg-Paarl will be available in time for the Cab Franc Carnival at Vrede en Lust on the Simondium/Franschhoek side of Paarl come 25 May. The price, which had still to be announced, was expected to be around R300pb, given that the previous vintage, a gold medallist at the 2023 Challenge, sold for R235, and that The Mitre 2020, one of the Top 3 Cab Franc-led blends submitted for the Challege, will be “in the region of R325pb”.

Ridgeback, another Paarl cellar – on the Wellington side of town – was also a ‘double winner’ with their 2021 Cabernet Franc (Top 6) as well as The Journey 2020 (Top 3 Blends). And the Thokozani Cabernet Franc 2022 from Diemersfontein in Wellington won the award for ‘Best Value’ – one of the Top 6 wines and selling for R155 a bottle.

The panel of judges who assessed the 31 entries at this year’s Challenge comprised wine writer Fiona McDonald (chair), Cape Wine Master Lizette Tolken and sommelier/chef Janine van Zyl. For their favourites, see below, and for the full results of the competition, click here.