WHAT A DIFFERENCE a year makes! Or doesn’t… Apparently some of those bidding during the timed online auction of sweet wines that concluded on 10 June ’24 regarded the 38-year-old 1986 vintage of Vin de Constance to be much better (or much more rare?) than the 37-year-old 1987: a 500ml bottle of the ever-so-slightly older vintage fetched R58 625 including
Read moreIF YOU LIKE Sauvignon Blanc, no doubt you’ll love these beauties – the most glowing reviews of South African expressions by the top panels of wine judges locally and around the world in 2023 to date. Highlighted in red are those Sauvignons that qualify for the SA Wine Classification showcasing good track records over the past 10 years. De
Read moreTHEY CAN’T say with absolute certainty whether it was made in 1791 or 1890, but “due to the colour and aromas” it’s believed to be the former. The unlabelled, handblown bottle is small, half a standard 750ml measure of ‘Constantia Sweet’, acquired by Stellenbosch Farmers’ Winery (now Heineken Beverages) at a London auction in 1974. Recently resealed by Amorim Cork
Read moreJUDGES at the 2023 International Wine Challenge in London were impressed by South African entries in a variety of classes, but the Chardonnay especially. Six of the 15 gold medals that went the way of Cape wine producers were for Chardonnay, with the 2021 vintage of Paul Cluver’s Seven Flags given 97 on the scorecard… Days after the names of
Read moreALMOST EVERYBODY who’s anybody in the vineyards of Constantia was on the billboard of exhibitors expected to be serving their Sauvignon to wine lovers at Workshop 47 in Rosebank JHB in the first of two evening events this May. The notable no-show being Constantia Uitsig, an estate that’s not a member of the local wine route although one of THE
Read moreALMOST as newsworthy as the record-breaking price of over R58K fetched for a 500ml Vin de Constance 1987 at the ‘Cape Heritage Wine’ Auction by Strauss & Co end-August 2022, was the ‘bargain’ price that the 1957 Chateau Libertas went for. A 750ml bottle of this old Chateau Lib blend from Cinsaut and Cabernet Sauvignon that came out of the
Read moreRATHER IMPRESSIVE! At the sale of 10-year-old wines by the South African auction house Strauss & Co, somebody paid over R4000 for a bottle of dessert wine from Andrea and Chris Mullineux’s Roundhouse farm outside Malmesbury in the Swartland. The bottle of ‘Essence’ is just 250ml in size, which would put the cost of a standard 750ml equivalent at over
Read moreWHAT TO make of it?! Over 200 wineries exhibiting at the ‘Critics’ Choice Grand Tastings’ of Wine Spectator’s 2021 New York Wine Experience in October and Grand Tour of Las Vegas, Washington and Chicago in December: perhaps surprisingly, most (62) from Italy, then 51 of the USA, 28 from Spain, 23 from France, 15 from Portugal, 10 from Chile, 9
Read moreAT STRAUSS & Co’s 27 September 2021 fine wine auction of 10-year-olds, the Sadie Family of the Swartland, Klein Constantia as well as the Stellenbosch cellars of Kanonkop, Vilafonté and Glenelly stood out as those fetching more than R2000 a bottle. Bidding for the red blend Keet First Verse and the Reserve Cab from Le Riche stopped just short of
Read moreWHO WOULD have thought that of the Top 100 winery destinations in the world, seven are in Lebanon, three in Russia? None in China, surprisingly enough, but there’s at least one worth seeking out in Japan, and one in India too! In the third year of the World’s Best Vineyards Academy awards organised and compiled by William Reed Business Media
Read moreANOTHER Strauss & Co Fine Wine (and Spirit) Auction done and dusted, another look at the sensational sweet wines of the world, cause to reflect once again on South Africa’s biggest names when it comes to Natural Sweet, Noble Late Harvest, Straw Wine and fortifieds. The thing is, while there are quite a number Classified as top Cape dessert wines
Read moreSOLD FOR OVER R5000 A BOTTLE THE FOLLOWING fine wines of the Cape fetched the highest prices at various auctions over the past 12 months or so – all attracting bids of more than R5000 a bottle. None of these beauties sold for over R1000 on release – the golden oldies originally changed hands for less than R100 – and
Read moreONCE AGAIN, France was awarded the most (12) ‘Best in Show’ medals (pick of the platinum medallists) at the UK’s international Decanter World Wine Awards with entries received from Bordeaux, Champagne, Alsace, Burgundy, Provence and the Loire. Italy claimed second place with eight of the 50 wines considered the best on show in 2020, followed by Australia (6) Portugal (5)
Read moreWHAT TO MAKE of Strauss & Co’s July 2020 online auction of fine South African wines?! For the auction catalogue, click here. Full results of the sale here. There were just three producers involved: ‘first growth’ Kanonkop on the slopes of the Simonsberg in Stellenbosch where they make a range of top reds from a range of varieties, Klein Constantia
Read moreKANONKOP PAUL SAUER tops the list of most ‘investment-worthy’ South African wines produced over the past 20 years and sold in 2019 at one of the various Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auctions or at the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction (CFRW) in Stellenbosch. That’s according to Roland Peens, director of Wine Cellar, the Cape Town-based merchants associated with
Read moreR85 MILLION for Quoin Rock in 2012. R90m and R80m for Uitkyk and Warwick in 2018. R94m for Knorhoek in 2019. All four on the Simonsberg in Stellenbosch. What would Kanonkop be valued at? It wasn’t that long ago that Constantia Uitsig sold for R175m, and before that Klein Constantia for R198m, with Boschendal of Franschhoek holding the national record
Read moreESTABLISHED as the Nederburg Auction, Paarl, it was ‘reinvented’ in 2019 as the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction, held over two days in October at the Rupert Museum, Stellenbosch, with Charlie Foley of British auction house Christie’s wielding the gavel. Sponsored by Libertas Vineyards & Estates of Distell, the October sale is billed as one of the most
Read moreTHE MOST in-demand South African lots at the first Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction to be held in Cape Town, organised in collaboration with retailer Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs… Following the inaugural event in Johannesburg three months earlier, the Cape reds, whites and sweets to fetch over R2000 a bottle/750ml at the September sale were as follows:
Read moreTHE CATALOGUE has been published; the countdown has begun. The first Fine South African Wine Auction by Strauss & Co, Wine Cellar Fine Wine Merchants and Sommelier Higgo Jacobs is set for 8 June 2019 in Johannesburg – with Cape Town next up come September in what will become an ongoing programme of interest to wine investors and hedonists. “The
Read morePRETTY handy if you’re going wine-tasting or shopping on one of Cape Town’s wonderful wine routes, the following are those reds, whites and sweets with the very best track records from the wineries of Constantia, Durbanville and elsewhere in the city according to the SA Wine & Cellar Classification. • For the full Cape Town Wine Classification, click here. •
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