Cape Winemakers Guild announces new selection criteria

The Cape Winemakers Guild yesterday announced that the selection criteria for the Guild’s auction have been revised. This is in order to “boost creativity and achieve greater diversity of wines crafted exclusively for this auction”.

In the past, wines included in the auction line-up were a scrutinised selection submitted by tasting panels, but the new criteria will result in all 43 members having a wine on auction – provided it is free of technical defects and meets the highest standards of wine health measurement.

Guild chairman Louis Strydom, of Ernie Els Vineyards, believes that the new selection criteria will encourage members to be bold and to experiment in terms of terroir, cultivar and wine styles.

In line with this, and contrary to previous auctions, the final decision now lies with the Guild member submitting the wine.

Strydom says that he hopes that this encourage winemakers to pursue more “unusual styles” – and not just wines that would please the tasting panels.

“Winemakers were more inclined to submit very good, but safe wines in order to secure selection in blind tastings, but this inevitably led to a narrowing down of the stylistic qualities of our auction wines,” said Strydom.

The annual Cape Winemakers Guild Auction is recognised as South Africa’s leading auction of rare wines to the liquor and restaurant trade as well as the general public.

This year, the Nedbank CWG Auction will be held at the Spier Conference Centre in Stellenbosch on Saturday, 1 October.

Wine enthusiasts will be able taste the 2011 auction lineup at Auction Showcases in Cape Town on Thursday, 11 August, and Johannesburg on Thursday, 1 September. With the shift in focus to more unique offerings, pre-auction tastings are more important than ever for potential bidders to identify the rare and unusual that please their palates prior to the auction.