Wine auction sets new sales record
A RECORD R11929600 in sales was set by the 30th Nedbank Cape Winemakers' Guild (CWG) auction at the weekend, beating the previous year's record of R8401400.
The 61 wines, which are made exclusively for the auction, included 40 reds and 18 whites.
In total 2833 cases of six bottles each were sold.
The auction took place in a quick six hours on Saturday at Spier wine estate's conference room in Stellenbosch under auctioneer Henré Hablutzel.
Bidders telephoned in from around the world, accounting for 10% of the overall sales, with the most bids coming from Denmark, followed by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
The three red wines that fetched the highest price of R8600 per case of six bottles were Boekenhoutskloof Syrah Auction Reserve 2012, Kanonkop CWG Paul Sauer 2011, and Etienne le Riche Cabernet Sauvignon Auction Reserve 2004.
The highest price paid for a white wine was R5600 for six bottles of Cape Point Vineyards CWG Reserve White 2013.
Chief sommelier for hotel group Tsogo Sun Miguel Chan was the biggest spender of the day at about R2.47-million.
With his eyes on the screen as the bids came in, he said: "These are some of the best wines on offer in the world. We're glad to see the quality of the wines is once again so high. This is what our customers want. The prices are reflective of the confidence in the industry."
Father and son Alan and Dani Pick of the Butcher Shop and Grill spent R1.9-million. Son Dani said their consumers' demand for CWG wine was "tremendous".
CWG chairman Andries Burger said: "We didn't expect to go this high.
"This is fantastic for the wine industry.
"This is all about authenticity and quality wine making."
He said they were proud of a unique anti-counterfeiting label designed for the auction.
Fifty-three wines carried a hi- tech hologram label which allows the consumer to identify the year of production.
"We've heard of cases of counterfeiting and we took a pre-emptive measure.
"This was our way of trying to stay ahead of counterfeiting. It was received warmly," he said. - Jerome Cornelius
