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 moreSTRAUSS & Co’s wine department was happy with the results of their timed online ‘2014 Vintage’ auction that came to a close on 11 March ’24. Consultant Roland Peens, director of fine wine merchant ‘Wine Cellar’ in Cape Town, reported that the Reserve was R545 150, the Hammer R718 100, Inclusive R841 973 – an 89% sell through with 12 lots unsold.
Read moreWHO HASN’T seen one of those wine bottle stickers denoting a Tim Atkin rating or award! The assessments by this British Master of Wine are conducted with full knowledge of whose wine it is and where it comes from, what vintage it is and how it was made – they are not ‘blind’ tastings, labels out of sight, and sometimes
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 moreWHAT RUBBISH! Wine Spectator, the biggest and some say the most influential magazine cum online publication for wine lovers in the USA names its Top 100 for 2021 and ONLY ONE of them is from South Africa: De Wetshof Bon Vallon Chardonnay 2020. Incredible! Although better than the zero in 2019… and in 2020 there were only three: Glenelley Estate Chardonny
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 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 moreWINE CELLAR director and fine wine ‘addict’ Roland Peens drew attention to this marvel with a tweet. A unique bottle of sweet Constantia, vintage 1835, in a 750ml bottle on which the design of the current 500ml version from Klein Constantia is based, with a tarred label and “lightly dirty” capsule, from the private cellar of Château de Saint Aignan
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 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 moreMULLING OVER results of the inaugural Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction in Johannesburg, waiting to hear feedback and comment from the organisers Wine Cellar and Sommelier Higgo Jacobs, there’s a fair bit to ponder. 78% of the 183 lots sold for R1.3m in total, the items ranging from single bottles to 12-bottle cases. “We think it’s a great start,”
Read moreRECEIVING 17 200 entries for the 2017 edition, the World Wine Awards convened by Decanter magazine (UK) is the largest wine competition on the planet. Special kudos to Paul Cluver of Elgin and Klein Constantia as the only South African wineries to get through the final round of judging when, of the 209 platinum award winners, 34 were chosen as the
Read moreA GROWING NUMBER of wine lovers today are falling for Groot Constantia’s Grand Constance – a Grande Dame reborn, you might say. The thing is, this unfortified dessert wine is coming of age (again) after some of the vintages following the (re)launch eight years or so ago were met with mixed reviews – down-to-earth cellarmaster Boela Gerber is open about how things weren’t quite
Read moreTHE STAND-OUT desserts from South Africa this year, the best sweet wine reviews around the world – from the great unfortified Natural Sweets and Noble Lates led by Vin de Constance, Fleur du Cap, Edelkeur and Eminence to the fantastic-value fortified sweets led by Badsberg, Bon Courage, KWV, Nuy and Slanghoek: UNFORTIFIED DESSERT Boekenhoutskloof Noble Late Harvest 2009 – highly recommended in Platter’s Guide
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