KWV has emerged as one of the standout performers at the 2026 LUMO Awards, with Senior Winemaker Izele van Blerk named Woman Winemaker of the Year and KWV The Mentors Perold 2022 taking Best Still Wine of the Year.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The double honour comes during South Africa’s Women’s Month and recognises both the winemaker and a wine whose sustained performance across leading competitions – now including the LUMO Awards – has established it as a benchmark for precision and quality.
KWV received two Double Gold and three Gold awards across five The Mentors wines, with The Mentors Pinotage 2022 and The Mentors Perold 2022 both earning Double Gold. The Mentors Petit Verdot 2022, Orchestra 2022 and Canvas 2022 each received Gold.
The Mentors Perold went on to claim the competition’s Best Still Wine of the Year trophy.
The result carries particular significance at the LUMO Awards, the only South African wine and spirits competition judged exclusively by women. Its all-female judging panel evaluates entries on quality, with the aim of recommending wines and spirits to consumers.
For Van Blerk, the awards add to a career increasingly distinguished by both the wines she makes and her contribution to the broader industry. She joined KWV in 2009 and is a founding winemaker of The Mentors range. Her work spans vineyard and fruit selection, picking decisions, cellar trials, production and final blending, with a particular focus on producing multi-regional wines from some of South Africa’s leading vineyard sites.
“To be recognised as Woman Winemaker of the Year during Women’s Month is incredibly meaningful, but to have The Mentors Perold recognised alongside it makes the moment even more special,” says Van Blerk. “The Mentors is built on collaboration. Every wine reflects the knowledge and commitment of growers, viticulturists, winemakers and our cellar and production teams. These awards belong to that collective effort.”
That approach has been central to Van Blerk’s philosophy. She has previously described consistency as one of the most important measures of winemaking excellence and speaks often about the “one per cent edge” – the cumulative effect of making small, deliberate improvements at every stage of the process.
The Mentors Perold 2022 has become a particularly strong expression of that philosophy. The Coastal Region Cape Blend comprises 30% Pinotage, 30% Shiraz, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Malbec, sourced from Stellenbosch, Wellington and Swartland. Only the
most promising components are selected, with the wine spending 18 months in first-fill French oak barrels.
The LUMO title adds another significant accolade to Perold 2022. The same vintage previously secured the prestigious Veritas Vertex Award, making KWV the only brand in the competition’s history to have won the Vertex three times.
Its latest success, together with medals across five different wines, reflects the breadth of The Mentors portfolio as much as one standout result – and the culture of knowledge, experimentation and consistent improvement behind it.
During Women’s Month, however, the achievement also provides an opportunity to recognise the woman helping to shape that work: a winemaker whose success continues to be measured not only by individual trophies, but by the standard she and her team are able to sustain from one vintage to the next.
2026 LUMO Awards – The Mentors results
● The Mentors Perold 2022 – Double Gold | Best Still Wine of the Year
● The Mentors Pinotage 2022 – Double Gold
● The Mentors Petit Verdot 2022 – Gold
● The Mentors Orchestra 2022 – Gold
● The Mentors Canvas 2022 – Gold
● Izele van Blerk – Woman Winemaker of the Year
