Cape Winemakers' Guild Tasting at the CT Iinternational Convention Centre

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

Francois Joubert of Asara chatting to Beyers Truter, who predictably has a Pinotage in the auction called Traildust 2012

Francois Naude and Donald Keys of Uncork South Africa

Francois Naude with Christine Rudman and Carl Schulz

Then it was time for the Public tasting downstairs at CTICC

 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

Norma Ratcliffe of Warwick Wines, puts a bid or two on the silent auction. Money from this and other auctions goes to the Guild Development Trust. Have a look at their Website to see where the money is going: http://www.capewinemakersguild.com/development-trust and the Protégé programme

Teddy Hall and his wife Doreen

Rianie Strydom

Avid tasters on the Kaapzicht stand talk to Danie Steytler jnr

Guild members David Finlayson of Edgebaston (current Guild Treasurer) and Duncan Savage of Cape Point Wines, having fun

The team from the Cederberg: Pieter du Toit and David Nieuwoudt. David has a Ghost Corner Semillon 2013 and the Teen die Hoog Shiraz 2012 in the auction. Always worth bidding for

Taking bids on the silent auction

David Finlayson with Andrea and Chris Mullineux

Two Auction wines from Andries Burger at Paul Cluver. Andries is currently President of the CWG

The Paul Cluver crew: Paul Cluver Junior, Mullineux Marketing manager Nicola Tipping and Andries Burger

 The ineffable Bartho Eksteen of Hermanuspietersfontein

Bernhard Veller of Nitida chatting to Suné Eksteen

The end of the evening: “You paid HOW MUCH for Bernhard’s wine in the Silent Auction?” Lynne is just pleased she got it. It is for a worthy cause

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?

They seem to be sailing away from the Cape!? Thought they claimed to discover it?

Oh boy were those eyes too big for the stomach. A menu combo: Crisp calamari rings, a small (?) helping of trichado – steak in a garlic, chilli and red wine sauce and YES, real crisp chips. Banting out the window today, its a necessity sometimes

John’s Trinchado and note, a refreshing ale to counter the wine acids.

There was some very very loud music from the band, bass to the fore and some lang arm dancing. Reminder to ourselves. “Go Monday to Wednesday, no band then.”

Dias is well known in the wine trade which is why we encountered Wim Braak with a friend and Morne de Villiers

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© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2014