Once a year the Cape Winemakers Guild holds an auction
of their member’s wines. This year it will be held on Saturday, October 4th at
Spier. If you are a serious wine buyer, this might be the place for you to
stock up your cellar with some of the best wines currently available in South
Africa. We tasted 42 excellent wines at the sit down guided tasting, which is
fast and furious. And there were another 19 for tasting informally after that. There
are some gems coming up this year in the auction, many of which we will be
tempted to bid for, but we hope that some will fit our budget. We will be
attending for the first time as we no longer work on Saturdays. You can look at
the catalogue on the CWG website http://www.capewinemakersguild.com/auction/
We then attended the public tasting that evening,
where we could taste previous and current wines entered into the auction and
chat with the winemakers. A silent auction is always held at this evening
tasting, of past Auction wines donated and signed by the winemakers and we try
to bid for some wine, with varying success! This year all we managed to secure
was a bottle of Nitida 2004 Select Shiraz. The money bid in this auction goes
to support bursaries for talented young wine students to study further both
here and abroad, a worthy cause indeed. One way to support our industry.
A welcome drink with Kevin Arnold of Waterford Wines
and Caroline Rillema
Having a laugh with Sandra Engelen, Shanté Hutton, and
a bent over double Niels Verburg of Luddite wines
The support team from Nitida: Winemaker Brendan Butler and Manager Jacus Marais. Cellarmaster Bernhard
Veller has entered a very beautiful Bordeaux blend called Gambit 2012 which we
scored very highly. This could be another Birthday wine from Nitida
Charles Hopkins talking about his wine, a wooded
Sauvignon Blanc. Membership of CWG is by invitation, and is extended to
winemakers recognised for their high standards of craftsmanship, who have been
responsible for producing outstanding wines for a minimum of five years and are
actively involved in operations in the cellar from harvest to bottling.
New member of the CWG Andrea Mullineux introduces her
wine for the first time. It was an interesting Semillon Gris made from 55 year
old vines found in the Paardeberg area
Peter Finlayson of Bouchard Finlayson presents another
great Pinot Noir from the Hemel and Aarde
Kevin Arnold introducing the Waterford CWG 2BB 2009
which is an absolutely classic Bordeaux blend
Abri Beeslaar of Kanonkop discusses the CWG Paul Sauer
2011
Members of the trade and media and other winemakers
tasting and listening intently.
Mike Bampfield Duggan and Michael Olivier having fun
Carl Schultz has entered a Hartenberg CWG Auction
Shiraz 2011. It is a fruit bomb, beautifully made, with layers of ripe fruit
and spices
Neil Proudfoot of Wine Concepts chatting to Kevin Grant,
whose Ataraxia Under the Gavel Chardonnay is bound to do well at the auction
The Vineyard
Hotel meets the Taj! Michael Pownall GM of the Taj chatting to Roy Davies, GM of the
Vineyard with Matt Dietchmann, their Food and Beverage Manager. All are
planning to be at the auction
Taking bids on the silent auction
Then it was off to a very smoky Dias Tavern for some
real Portuguese food to help soak up all that glorious wine. Whatever happened
to their glassed in smokers section to keep the rest of us away from it?
Dias is well known in the wine trade which is why we
encountered Wim Braak with a friend and Morne de Villiers
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014
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