MICHAEL FRIDJHON: For those with deep pockets or for those who wish they had

The annual Nedbank Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) auction — which takes place on October 6 and 7 — is the only wine sale in SA that focuses on current release ultrapremium wines. It’s been a feature of the wine industry calendar for almost 40 years. Over that time it has acquired an enviable reputation for the quality of the wines on offer, as well as for the excitement that accompanies the events hosted over the auction season.

For the past 25 years or so the guild and its auction has played an important developmental role in the wine industry. The Protegé programme has trained 34 winemakers and is presently providing on-the-job experience to a further seven. Unlike many such schemes, which start out well but never get to achieve meaningful change, graduates from Protegé have come to occupy significant positions in wine cellars in the Cape. They are on career trajectories that are transforming a wine industry that has been slow to address its demographic.

Shopping at the CWG auction is not a recommended activity for people trying to balance the monthly household budget. The highest price paid per bottle in 2022 was for the 2019 Kanonkop Paul Sauer (R2,457). The most expensive white wine was the Lismore Valkyrie Chardonnay 2021 (R1,743) while the average price for all wines was R1,227. However frivolously you treat money, these are amounts that only an oligarch would dismiss as irrelevant.

So it seems a fair question to ask why enough buyers last year competed with each other to drop more than R13m on just more than 500 lots? Are the wines significantly better than the regular offerings from the guild members’ cellars? Is the attraction simply the rarity, the selections put aside and sold under the CWG label having sufficient cachet to command this kind of premium?

There was a time when the difference between the auction and the standard release was inconsequential. Nowadays, the auction selection is visibly different and generally of unimpeachable quality. The line-up includes unusual blends, uncommon cultivars and some striking single barrels of standout wines.

Every year I am privileged to get a set of tasting samples for blind tasting: without the producer’s name to help “guide” my assessment, my resulting notes and scores reflect what I taste, rather than the marketing message associated with some of the country’s most prestigious wine brands. Of course, I am conscious of the fact that as guild auction wines each sample is theoretically worth a very solid score. It’s unlikely that any bottle will land up “out of the medals”. That said, precisely because the auction selection process is extremely rigorous, I have high expectations of every sample and I am probably overly harsh when a wine does not deliver.

My highest scoring wine — on 97 points — was the Jordan Sophia 2021, followed by (all on 96 points) the Mullineux “The Gris” Old Vines Semillon 2022, Pierre Wahl’s Survivor Chardonnay 2022, the Leeu Passant Franschhoek Hillside Cabernet Franc 2021 and the Kanonkop CWG Paul Sauer 2020. On 95 points — so a solid gold — there was John Loubser’s Silverthorn Big Dog IX Cap Classique, Beaumont’s Hope Single Vineyard Chenin Blanc 2022, Ataraxia’s Under the Gavel Chardonnay 2022, Newton Johnson’s Sandford Chardonnay 2021, Wahl’s Survivor CWG Pinot Noir 2022, Beaumont’s Arturo Pinotage 2021, Duncan Savage’s Auction Syrah 2021, Keermont’s “Where the Mountains Meet” Red Blend 2021, Erika Obermeyer’s Silver Linings 2021 and Hartenberg’s CWG Auction Cabernet 2021. That’s an impressive list of truly high-end wines.

On 94 points were Raats Family Wines The Fountain Chenin Blanc 2022, Paul Cluver’s The Wagon Trail Chardonnay 2022, Boplaas’s Daniel’s Legacy Blend 2021, Rianie Strydom’s The Game Changer Cabernet Franc-Merlot 2018 and Louis Strydom’s Ernie Els CWG 2020. If your pockets are deep enough, every wine making it to 94 points or more is worthy of a flutter when the auction goes live.

For all my scores and notes go to https://www.winewizard.co.za/article/1332

For details of all the auction events go to https://www.capewinemakersguild.com/auction/