2011 CWG Auction preview

The first Cape Winemakers Guild auction took place in 1985 in Johannesburg with the then head of Sotheby’s wine department David Molyneux-Berry MW conducting the bidding process. It was a route to market for South Africa’s fledgling independent winemaking sector and largely incidental to the main aims of the Guild, which were to elevate the standards of South African winemaking and to gain international recognition.

Today it is inconceivable that the Guild would not conduct an annual auction – it has simply become far too commercially important for its members. The question is: does it still serve to improve South African wine quality?

 

Until recently, wines which appeared at auction had to be approved by fellow Guild members at a blind tasting. Whereas the auction was potentially a means of encouraging experimentation and innovation, it was tending to foster very “safe” cuvées. A particular criticism is that Guild members favour big, bold reds over more elegant, classic-style wines.

This year the auction line-up is the product of a new approach by the Guild, with member-comprised tasting panels are no longer the final arbiter on what goes on sale. Instead, all 43 members are now entitled to have a wine on auction, provided it is free of technical defects of wine health measurement.

What has the impact been of these less constrictive selection criteria? For one thing, the line-up is certainly more diverse this year with 55 individual wines from 39 of the 43 Guild members included compared to 39 wines from 28 members in 2010, while the number of cases to be sold is up to 2 962 six-bottle cases from 2 298 last year.

More diverse is all very well but what we really all want to see are more exciting wines. Conversely, it could be argued that previously what gave the auction legitimacy was that the wines had underdone peer review and without this in place, standards of quality will be inclined to slip.

Based on a recent blind tasting of 52 of the wines to go on sale, my impression is that the new approach to the auction is already a success and will foster even more creative excellence in years to come as members feel more encouraged to break convention and let it all hang out.

Terrific to see wines such as the single variety Touriga Nacional as made by David Trafford from his Sijnn property near Swellendam or the Grenache-Syrah blend from Dewaldt Heyns.

Perhaps even more significant is the upswing in the quality of the red wines on auction which I perceived. I had nine wines that I scored over 90 on the 100-point system and seven of these were red:

Paul Cluver The Wagon Trail Chardonnay 2009 - 97
Rijk's CWG Pinotage 2009 - 96
Waterford Estate 2005 Auction Reserve BB - 96
De Trafford Sijnn Touriga Nacional 2009 - 95
Ernie Els CWG 2009 - 95
Hartenberg Estate Auction Shiraz 2009 - 95
Rijk's CWG Chenin Blanc 2010 - 95
Overgaauw D.C. Classic 2009 - 93
The Guildsman 2009 – 91

If winemaking is a creative endeavour as it surely must be at the top end of the market, then arriving at the auction selection by committee decision (which is ultimately what panel tastings come down to) was surely self-defeating. For my full scores and ratings of this auction wines, visit www.whatIdranklastnight.co.za