Whitehaven has recieved a top honour with the vineyard's Senior Winemaker Diana Katardzhieva globally recognition.
Whitehaven Senior Winemaker Diana Katardzhieva has been named ‘Best Woman Winemaker’ for still white wines at the prestigious 2025 Sakura Women's Wine Awards.
Both the 2024 Whitehaven Sauvignon Blanc and 2023 Chardonnay were awarded the top accolade of Diamond Trophy.
This prestigious competition has celebrated wines that exemplify quality, and Whitehaven wines have shined brightly at this year’s tasting. Now in its 12th year, the event attracted 3,969 entries from 36 countries, judged by 430 female wine judges (280 in Tokyo and 150 in Osaka).
Whitehaven has submitted wines to this competition since 2015.
However, the Whitehaven team's greatest pride came from seeing winemaker, Diana Katardzhieva, recognised as the Best Winemaker in the still white wines category for Whitehaven’s 2023 Chardonnay. Katardzhieva is one of just nine female winemakers to receive this honour, and one of only two New Zealand female winemakers to make this prestigious list.
Katardzhieva, who has been at Whitehaven for over 20 years, said the recognition was a shock.
“It is proof that years of tasting, tweaking, and the occasional barrel pep talk can pay off,” she said.
Katardzhieva credited women in general and her wider team by calling the award a wonderful reminder of the amazing things women are accomplishing in the wine industry.
“Great wine is a team effort, and I see the award as recognition not only of myself, but of the fruit quality from our vineyards and growers, and the effort of the Whitehaven team. The fact this wine is judged by a talented group of women, makes this even more special…especially since we all know women are usually the ones choosing the wine anyway.”
Sue White, co-founder of Whitehaven, expresses her pride in the accolade, crediting Katardzhieva for her winemaking skill and consistency in winemaking.
“This level of success is a credit to Diana and her team who work hard to create wines of exceptional quality.”
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