International awards recognise Mosaic at the Orient

21 Jun 2016

Mosaic at the Orient, South Africa's Restaurant of the Year, has won the Best Overall in Region Award at the 2016 World's Best Wine Lists Awards. The restaurant also took awards for the Best Champagne and Sparkling Wine List; Best Dessert and Fortified Wine List; Best By The Glass Wine List; Best Hotel Wine List; and a special Jury Prize.

Mosaic cellar team: Germain Lehodey, Mari Dartnall, Chantel Dartnall, and Moses Magwaza.

The 2016 World's Best Wine Lists, run by The World of Fine Wine, were announced globally last week. The overall winner was Robuchon au Dome, housed in Hotel Lisboa, Macau.

The awards celebrate the importance of a good selection of wine from around the world and are assessed by a panel of senior judges, including: Alder Yarrow, Elin McCoy, Ch'ng Poh Tiong, Andrew Jefford, Andreas Larsson, Francis Percival, and the World of Fine Wine's editor, Neil Beckett.

This year they were also joined by chef Daniel Humm and wine director Cedric Nicaise from Eleven Madison Park, the winner of the World's Best Wine List in 2015. The panel assessed more than 4500 wine lists before narrowing them down to a final list of 817.

Rigorous assessment

Neil Beckett said: “Each wine list underwent numerous stages of judging and rigorous assessment."

Restaurant Mosaic hosts one of the finest wine cellars in the country with some of the best and rarest wines from both South Africa and the world.

In January this year it was also announced that Restaurant Mosaic was one of only 14 South African restaurants to make it onto La Liste, a new selection of the 1000 most remarkable restaurants across the globe.

This is not the only accolade received by the restaurant. In November 2015 Mosaic was named Restaurant of the Year at the Restaurant Association of South Africa (RASA) Rosetta Awards. It also won the Chairman’s Award as well as the Best Elegant Dining Award.

Mosaic was placed in the Top 10 best restaurants in the country at the annual Eat Out Mercedes-Benz Restaurant Awards held in Cape Town.

It currently holds the overall Best Diamond Award at The Diners Club International Wine list Awards and was voted the Best in Gauteng. It also took the Platinum Fine Dining Award for the eighth consecutive year at the American Express Platinum Fine Dining Awards for 2016.

Mosaic at the Orient also received the international Wine Spectator’s Award of Excellence this year, a true honour for a South African restaurant. To qualify for this award, the wine list should offer a selection of more than 400 wines, deliver a superior presentation and display either vintage depth, with several vertical offerings of top wines, or an unusual wide range across several wine regions. It was one of only three restaurants on the African continent to be so honoured.