This year’s auction of the wines of the Cape Winemakers’ Guild will be held on October 3 and 4 at the Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West. It may be the least ebullient in many years.
For a start, the economy is hardly conducive to frivolous shopping. Wine sales almost everywhere are down, and the domestic market reflects this contraction. Even the high-end trade is looking brittle: when the mood in the country is gloomy, no-one really thinks of filling the gaps in the cellar.
More seriously for the guild, its sponsorship arrangement with Nedbank (one of the most enduring in the country) has come to an end. It’s difficult to quantify the value of such arrangements (beyond the actual monetary component). However, among the intangibles that come from a proper partnership between sponsor and event is the quality of the audience: not just filling the auction hall with bank clients, but making sure that the money in the room knows what it’s buying and — in the case of the guild’s protégé programme — what it’s supporting.
This year will be a test of whether there was such a synergy, and whether it’s survived the relationship: past buyers will doubtless know about the 2025 sale (notwithstanding the end of Nedbank’s sponsorship). If they enjoyed the wines they bought at previous sales, they might sign up for a bidding paddle. In that case, the auction won’t lose all of the buyers whose purchasing power contributed to its success in the past.
There’s much worthy of their attention. I worked my way through the full auction line-up, sampling every one of the almost 50 wines blind, describing and rating them by category. Almost all scored well into the 90s, with a couple attaining the 95s and 96s that tell of gold medal quality in absolute (that is, international) terms.
Of course, I knew I was tasting wines that had been selected for the auction. Some might argue that the fact that I was aware that the wines had already passed a rigorous selection process could have influenced my generosity. (My usual scoring distribution sees about 65% of my ratings under the 90-point silver medal threshold.)
It’s difficult to argue against an unconscious bias. All I can say is that I was acutely aware of the risk and I did my best to guard against a marked inflation to my scores. (I can also point out that several wines did not emerge unscathed, with a higher-than-usual percentage — for guild selections — consigned to ratings in the mid to late 80s.)
So which of the guild auction wines should wine lovers be chasing down when the sale takes place at the beginning of October, and which should they avoid? The answer in short is that you can hardly go wrong with any, though if I had to mention a category that is not the equal of the others it would be pinot noir.
There were — amazingly — six pinots out of a total of 48 wines on the auction. Of these, Richard Kershaw’s “Vertiginous” 2023 was the highest scoring at 93 points. It is possible that, because I’ve spent so much time in Burgundy, and sampling its wines, I “don’t understand” Cape pinot. You can take that as a disclaimer and be guided by others more enthusiastic than me.
Beyond this reservation, the auction classes are very strong (with chardonnay — Burgundy’s white variety — probably the strongest of all). There are some brilliant cap classiques (the Graham Beck Extra Brut 2018 and the Silverthorn), a great Bartho Eksteen Sauvignon, an extraordinary semillon from Andrea Mullineux, a lovely white blend from Thorne and Daughters, several fabulous chardonnays (Storm, Ataraxia and Lismore), a great Beeslaar pinotage, two brilliant syrahs (Rall and Boschkloof), two great cabernets (Rock of Eye and Carl Schultz) and a wonderful Boschkloof blend from Reenen Borman.
Find more information about the auction and, more importantly, the protégé programme here.
Find my scores and tastings notes here.
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