All the winners from the Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters 2023

Following our recent judging, we are able to reveal the full list of medal-winning wines from this year’s Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters, featuring outstanding wines from California to Turkey and South Australia.

Of all the globally planted varieties of the world, Cabernet Sauvignon is the most reliable source of fine wine. Classed as the King of Grapes, it’s a variety that is able to yield outstanding results in a broad range of places. As long as there’s enough heat, and drainage – Cabernet likes dry gravelly soils – this grape can be the basis of wines that are wonderfully concentrated and structured, and, as a result, age-worthy.

The sources of such greatness are varied, and new ones are emerging each decade, but it is the wines from the US, Italy, Australia, and Chile in particular that are challenging Cabernet’s native region of Bordeaux for excellence. Indeed, all these nations have their ‘first growth’ equivalents, which are increasingly being sold alongside great Bordeaux through the French distribution system La Place.

With this in mind, expectations were high for the Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters, with the judges hoping to find great wines, while being harsh on anything that wasn’t good. The top wines had Cabernet’s hallmark blackcurrant fruit, often mingling with some red berry flavours too, and dense, mouth-coating fine ripe tannins, with additional characters coming from oak and, in some cases, other grapes – Cabernet likes to be combined with a mix of varieties.

This year, weaker expressions sometimes had low-level faults, from volatile acidity to reduction, or baked, overripe fruit, and the opposite too, with green capsicum-like characters coming to the fore – always a risk with pyrazineprone Cabernet. But the disappointments were rare. The results were remarkable, with 26 Gold medals and 11 Masters awarded.

Such was the quality of the samples, the judges left the competition filled with enthusiasm. As one of them, Jonathan Pedley MW, commented after the tasting: “The prospects of a day in the clutches of Cabernet Sauvignon can be daunting, but today turned into a joyous demonstration of why this grape has such an august reputation.”

With high-quality judges and a unique sampling process, The Global Cabernet Sauvignon Masters provides a chance for your wines to star. The 2023 competition was judged on 5 April at COMO Halkin, London, employing experienced judges.

The top wines were awarded Gold, Silver, or Bronze medals according to their result, and those expressions that stood out as being outstanding received the ultimate accolade – the title of Cabernet Sauvignon Master.

This report features the medal winners only. Please visit the Global Masters website for more information, or, to enter future competitions – giving you the chance to feature online and in print – please call: +44 (0) 20 7803 2420 or email Sophie Raichura.

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