The Trophy Wine Show

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Judges 2023

The Trophy Wine Show judging takes place at Lord Charles Hotel from 15 – 18 May 2023. The panel comprises three international and six local judges covering a broad range of wine tasting experience, expertise and working with a 100-point scoring system. The panel has been chaired by leading wine authority Michael Fridjhon since the inception of the show in 2002.

Show Chairman

Michael Fridjhon
Michael Fridjhon

International Judges

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Anne Krebiehl
Anne Krebiehl MW
Benjamin Roffet
Benjamin Roffet
Jancis Robinson
Jancis Robinson MW OBE

South African Judges

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Heidi Duminy
Heidi Duminy CWM
James Pietersen
James Pietersen
Trizanne Barnard
Gynore Hendricks
Patson Mathonsi
JD Pretorius
Cathy van Zyl MW

Judges

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Michael Fridjhon

Michael Fridjhon

Show Chairman

Chairman of the judges at the Trophy Wine Show. Author, co-author and contributor to a number of wine books including The Oxford Companion to Wine, The Global Wine Encyclopaedia, and Platter’s South African Wine Guide. Recipient of the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Merite Agricole (France). Judge at numerous competitions including the Australian National Wine Show, the Six Nations Wine Challenge in Australia (now the Global Fine Wine Challenge), as well as benchmark tastings in France, the United States, Chile and South Africa. First international co-chairman of the International Wine Challenge (2007). Visiting Professor of Wine Business at the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business and head of the Wine Judging Academy run in association with the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business. Winner of the Louis Roederer International Wine Columnist of the Year award (2012). Recipient of the SA Wine Industry Wine Appreciation and Wine Advancement Award (2021).

Anne Krebiehl

Anne Krebiehl MW

International Judge

Anne Krebiehl MW who is German-born but London-based, is a widely published freelance wine writer and lecturer. She is the editor for Germany, Alsace and Austria for Vinousmedia.com. From January 2021, she was editor-in-chief of Falstaff Magazine which she launched in the UK, until its merger with another title in summer 2022. Prior to that she was the contributing editor for Austria, Alsace, Burgundy and England for US Wine Enthusiast Magazine and wrote for trade and consumer publications like The World of Fine Wine, Decanter and TheBuyer.net.

She lectures, particularly on German wine, judges international wine competitions and is a panel chair at the International Wine Challenge. She completed her WSET Diploma in 2010 and was admitted to the Institute of Masters of Wine in September 2014. She loves high-acid wines and her work often focuses on Pinot Noir, Riesling and traditional method sparkling wines. She has harvested and helped to make wine in New Zealand, Germany and Italy. Her first book, The Wines of Germany, published in Infinite Ideas’ Classic Wine Library, appeared in September 2019 and won the Domaine Faiveley International Wine Book of the Year 2020 award at the Louis Roederer International Wine Writers’ Awards. In her own time, Anne loves to swim, garden and entertaining.

Benjamin Roffet

Benjamin Roffet

International Judge

Benjamin first judged at the Trophy Wine Show in 2019. He graduated in Dijon, the “Kingdom of Pinot Noir”.  This year he celebrates 20 years in the restaurant industry as a sommelier, mostly working in France and the UK.

He has worked with chefs such as Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay and since 2019 with Frederic Anton, as the Wine Director of the Jules Verne Restaurant on the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

He is winner of the Best Sommelier in France (2010) and recipient of the Meilleur Ouvrier de France Sommellerie (2011).

Jancis Robinson

Jancis Robinson MW OBE

International Judge

Jancis was voted the world’s most influential wine critic in various polls in the US, France and internationally in 2018 – although she describes herself as a wine writer rather than a wine critic. She founded JancisRobinson.com in 2000, selling the award-winning wine website in 2021. She is now editor in chief and main contributor. She has been wine correspondent for the Financial Times since 1990 and writes for this global publication and ft.com every Saturday. 

She is founder-editor of The Oxford Companion to Wine, co-author with Hugh Johnson of The World Atlas of Wine (nearly five million copies sold) and co-author of Wine Grapes, each of these books recognised as a standard reference worldwide. The 24-Hour Wine Expert (2017) is a slim paperback guide to the practical essentials of wine.

In 1984 she was the first person outside the wine trade to pass the rigorous Master of Wine exams and in 2003 she was awarded an OBE by Her Majesty the Queen, on whose cellar she advised from 2004 until 2022. In one week in April 2016 she was presented with France’s Officier du Mérite Agricole, the German VDP’s highest honour and, in the US, her fourth James Beard Award. She now has six, including being the only wine writer elevated to the James Beard Cookbook Hall of Fame. In 2021 she became a trustee of the Gérard Basset Foundation designed to increase diversity and inclusion in the worlds of wine, spirits and hospitality though education.

She loves and lives for wine in all its glorious diversity, generally favouring balance and subtlety over sheer mass, having campaigned for associated sustainability issues since 2006.

Heidi Duminy

Heidi Duminy CWM

South African Judge

Cape Wine Master and Principal of the Cape Wine Academy. Formerly communications manager for DGB, brand manager for Veuve Clicquot and Krug and trade marketing manager of the LVMH portfolio of Champagnes and spirits. Wine marketing specialist and group marketing manager for Meridian Holdings. Distinction graduate of the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy in 2011 and Advanced Wine Judging Academy attendee in 2014. Particular expertise in judging Cap Classique sparkling wines: convener for the Amorim Cap Classique Challenge since 2017, the Diner’s Club Winemaker of the Year panel in 2020 and sparkling wine judge at the Veritas Awards since 2011. Associate judge at The Trophy Wine Show in 2012, 2014 and 2015, judge since 2016.
James Pietersen

James Pietersen

South African Judge

Wine Cellar Fine Wine Merchants CEO, a former wine buyer for the Vineyard Connection. Graduated with distinction at the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy in 2007 and attended the Advanced Wine Judging Academy in 2014. More than 18 years of judging experience at various competitions, including chair for the Chenin Blanc Top 10, panellist for Winemag.co.za, and roving chair for Platter’s South African Wine Guide. First judged at Trophy Wine Show in 2008 and on 9 subsequent occasions.

Trizanne Barnard

South African Judge

Graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2002 with a BSc Viticulture and Oenology degree. Following vintages in Alsace, Bordeaux, Northern Rhône as well as Portugal and Western Australia, served as chief winemaker for Anwilka in Stellenbosch from 2005 to 2008. Released the maiden vintage of her Trizanne Signature Wines in 2010 and has successfully released 14 vintages since then. A distinction graduate of the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy in 2009 and Advanced Wine Judging Academy attendee in 2014, she has served on the judging panels for South Africa’s Young Wine Show and Wine magazine. Winemakers’ Choice Awards judge for 5 years and Best Value Wine judge in 2015. Trophy Wine Show associate judge in 2010 and 2012, judge from 2014 – 2016 and in 2020.

Gynore Hendricks

South African Judge

Winemaker of Great Heart Wines and Associate winemaker at Mullineux and Leeu Family Wines. Completed her BAgric in Viticulture and Oenology at Elsenburg in 2016. Participant in the Cape Winemakers Guild Protégé Programme from 2017 to 2019, during which she worked at Tokara, De Grendel as well as Mullineux & Leeu. Worked a harvest in Burgundy in 2018. Distinction graduate from the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy. Associate judge at The Trophy Wine Show in 2021. Judge in 2022.

Patson Mathonsi

South African Judge

Main Market Regional sales manager Gauteng/KZN at Spier Wine Estate. Eat Out Wine Service Award in 2014. Head Sommelier at DW11-13 Restaurant in Johannesburg and sales representative at The Reciprocal Wine Trading Company from 2015 until 2018. Completed the Cape Wine Academy Certificate in Wine and WSET Levels 1, 2 and 3, and a member of the Hugues Lepin Sommelier and Wine Academy. Graduate of the Michael Fridjhon Wine Judging Academy in 2016. Associate judge at The Trophy Wine Show from 2016 to 2018 and judge since 2019.

JD Pretorius

South African Judge

Graduated from Stellenbosch University in 2007 with a BSc Viticulture and Oenology degree. Cellarmaster at Warwick Wine Estate since May 2019, having previously been with Steenberg, with stints at Beyerskloof, Graham Beck and in California. Cape Winemakers Guild member since 2018. Diner’s Club Young Winemaker of the Year in 2014. Sauvignon Blanc South Africa committee member. Regular judge at The Trophy Wine Show.

Cathy van Zyl MW

South African Judge

Master of Wine. Associate editor of Platter’s South African Wine Guide and co-author of the South African chapter in The Wine Report for several years. Current vice-chair of the Institute of Masters of Wine; previous chair of its education committee. Lectures internationally, mostly in Japan, occasionally contributing to wine journals and websites around the world. In 2019, named the Institute of Cape Wine Masters’ Personality of the Year for her passionate promotion of SA wine. An occasional panellist for several other local competitions, she has also judged overseas, with stints at Vinitaly’s Consurso Enologico Internacional, the Sydney International Wine Competition, the Shanghai International Wine Competition, Decanter’s World Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge. Judge at The Trophy Wine Show from 2003 to 2011 and again since 2020.