The results of the annual auction of the wines of the Cape Winemakers Guild bucked the trend of deluxe wines and spirits sales worldwide.
In the same month that luxury liquor group LVMH (proprietors of brands like Hennessy Cognac, Moet & Chandon, Veuve Clicquot and Dom Perignon) reported a 10% year-on-year decline in sales, the guild enjoyed an increase of 11%.
The improved figures were not the result of shorting the market: 2024 saw the biggest volume of guild auction wines since Covid-19. The average price per bottle was almost 50% up on 2021. On the surface, it would seem that the fine wine market in SA is flourishing. The price per bottle — taken over more than 1,000 dozen bottles — exceeded R1,300. Andrea Mullineux’s sémillon gris averaged more than R3,000 per bottle; the Kanonkop Paul Sauer a fraction less. The Beaumont single vineyard chenin touched R2,000, as did the Hartenberg merlot and the Jordan Sophia. Almost nothing sold for under R1,000 per bottle.
It’s worth giving this a little international context. For R1,000 per bottle you can buy a decent current vintage premier cru red Burgundy from a reputable grower; for R2,000 per bottle a cru classé Bordeaux from a top vintage. There’s no dry sémillon I can think of, from anywhere in the world, that sells for half the price that was paid for the Mullineux.
Of course, France is not necessarily the benchmark when it comes to premium pricing these days: there are many Napa cabernets that are more expensive than cru classé Bordeaux. Any number of Australian shirazes sell for more in their domestic market than the most expensive current release equivalent from the Northern Rhone. Since the famous “Judgment of Paris” tasting of 1976 (at which California outperformed some of the best French wines) the aura around the top Old World appellations has lost much of its lustre.
There are also several reasons why consumers prefer to drop large sums of money on local collectibles: for many of their guests big ticket home-grown wines carry greater prestige. They recognise the value of the label. Obscure and exotic foreign wines may appeal to the geek-trade but the known rarity of domestic treasures often trumps wines that make cover pictures for the international wine glossies.
Then there’s the question of familiarity of taste: palates brought up on the fuller richer styles of cabernet typical of Stellenbosch and Napa can find the classics from the Medoc a little too insubstantial. They are also more likely to prefer their red wines when they are young, more primary, more textural. The gossamer-and-lace of a middle-aged claret or a pinot noir from Beaune can seem flimsy, fragile and too elusive to justify the price its worldwide status demands.
There are also no absolutes in terms of wine quality: once a wine has been properly made and is free of technical issues (yeast contaminants like brettanomyces, high levels of volatile acidity) most criteria are subjective. One man’s “refined” is another’s “insubstantial”, someone’s “textural” is another’s “clumsy and tannic”. What drives price is less about product intrinsics and more about “brand” perceptions.
“Brand” here means more than simply the name of the estate — and here the Old World used to dominate the territory. In this sense, France, Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champagne were all brands — even before they were narrowed down to Medoc or Vosne-Romanée, and then even more precisely Chateau Lafite Rothschild or Romanée-Conti. Nowadays the brand reputation of the wider geographical entities of the Old World has tarnished. No-one pays a premium for wine from “Bordeaux” or “Macon” though there’s no shortage of buyers for the best vintages of the top properties — especially those that only produce minuscule volumes.
This may help to explain the success of the 2024 guild sale: the auction, and the wines offered on it, all packaged with the guild’s (not the producer’s) labels, has become a brand in its own right. It delivers exclusivity, fashionability and rarity. What else is money there for, after all?
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