SA's Orient Boutique Hotel wins World's Best Hotel Wine List award
The Orient Boutique Hotel in Pretoria was honoured for having the Best Hotel Wine List in the World for 2018. The hotel's Restaurant Mosaic at the Orient also received a Jury Prize and a further five World's Best Wine List Award accolades for its wine list and service.
It won in the following categories: Best Hotel Wine List in the World 2018, Best Long Wine List in Middle East and Africa 2018, Best Champagne and Sparkling Wine List in Middle East and Africa 2018, Best Dessert and Fortified Wine List in Middle East and Africa 2018, and Best By-the-Glass Wine List Without Coravin in Middle East and Africa 2018.
Chef Chantel Dartnall, Mari Dartnall cellar master, Cobus du Plessis, sommelier Moses Magwaza
Mosaic’s competition in the Best Hotel Wine List category included Amber at the Landmark Mandarin Oriental (Asia); Jonah’s (Australia); Grand Hotel (Europe); and The Barn at Blackberry Farm (North America).
Cellar master Cobus du Plessis, Chef Chantel Dartnall, and Restaurant Mosaic’s Mari Dartnall attended the awards ceremony, which was held at Vintner’s Hall in London, UK.
Regarded as the sommelier’s version of Michelin stars, the World’s Best Wine Lists Awards is the most rigorous and prestigious wine list accolade in the industry. It is organised by the multiple award-winning publicationThe World of Fine Wine, which assembles an independent panel of prestigious international wine experts to judge the various categories.
This year, they included the Chinese wine writer Chng Poh Tiong, columnist for Wine Life and RVF China which published the world’s first Chinese Bordeaux Guide in 2000; award-winning English wine writer and columnist for Decanter.com Andrew Jefford; Swedish sommelier Andreas Larsson, previous winner of the Best Sommelier of the World; American wine and spirits columnist for Bloomberg Markets, international wine judge and a contributor to publications such as Food & Wine and The New York Times Elin McCoy; American wine and restaurant blogger and publisher of Vinography Alder Yarrow; and the UK’s Francis Percival from The World of Fine Wine.
This honour follows Restaurant Mosaic's 2018 Grand Award from the highly-acclaimed US publication Wine Spectator for its wine list and cellar, a first for an establishment on the African continent. It joins a very elite group – being one of only 85 restaurants around the world – in holding this highest honour, out of more than 3,500 global restaurants that have earned Wine Spectator awards for their wine lists.
Next month, the Mosaic team will be attending the New York Wine Experience Grand Awards Banquet to receive their award. The award-winning Gauteng-based restaurant has been celebrated for its wine cellar which boasts more than 75,000 bottles and nearly 6,000 different labels.
