A stellar cast for the 2018 Nederburg Auction wine line-up

The wine industry itself is continually evolving to keep up with changing preferences, climate change, production techniques and internal and external factors. In order to remain relevant, sustainable and world-class, the Auction itself has evolved over the past four and a half decades as change is the only constant.

Following a record number of entries this year, just over a quarter of all wines entered have been selected for Auction and will go under the hammer on 8 September 2018. To put this into perspective, out of the over 900 producers in SA, together with their thousands of wines and vintages, to make it to Auction, it has to be something very special. All wines entered are selected through an audited blind tasting to ensure complete selection independence. The minimum age entry requirements are 6 years and older for red, fortified and sweet wines and 3 years and older for whites and MCC. The minimum age requirements were increased this year, a direct result of producers seeing real benefit from having their products on auction and strategising and planning with future Auctions in mind.

The older entry requirements ensure that buyers at auction also benefit from these changes and will be given a chance to bid on some otherwise unobtainable and exclusive wines with further aging a key selection criterion. Apart from the age component, other entry conditions require that all wines on auction should not have been available in the trade for at least 12 months prior to entry. The wine being sold on auction should be the last of the producers’ stock. Should producers want to keep some stock back for future Auctions, this strategy can be agreed with the Nederburg Auction ensuring that the integrity of both the Auction and producers are protected. Buyers can be assured that every effort is made to make the Nederburg Auction the premier wine auction of fine, rare South African wines, the only platform of its kind in South Africa that is accessible and open to all local producers.

With 64 successful producers, 3 new entrants, 108 wines, 7,000 litres and an average vintage age of 11 years old, the 44th Nederburg Auction promises to have something for everyone. First time participants include Sijnn Wines (Malgas) with their Touriga Nacional 2012 and Beau Constantia with their Lucca 2011, a Bordeaux Blend. For lovers of bubbly, Le Lude (Franschhoek) makes its debut with 3 successful entries including their Vintage Brut, Vintage Brut Agrafe and Vintage Cuvee (1.5L).

The 2018 Selection Panel included returning judges and panel chairs Cathy van Zyl MW and Tim Atkin MW. They were supported by Greg Sherwood MW, Richard Kershaw MW, Michael Fridjhon, Roland Peens and two new panellists William Wouters (president of the Belgium Sommeliers Guild and Vice President – Europe for the Association de la Sommellerie Internationale) and François Rautenbach (head of the Singita Premier Wine Direct programme for conservation company Singita Game Reserves). During the selection tasting, Greg Sherwood said: “While our judging conditions and rigour doesn’t change, what has maybe changed is that we are more aware that some of these wines are getting rarer and rarer. Private individuals are willing to spend more and more money and we have an even greater obligation to make sure that that money is well spent.”

The Selection Panel had their work cut out for them tasting over 400 wines in two days. South African Greg Sherwood MW, senior wine buyer of Handford Wines, London said of the Cabernets: “Cabernet is one of our premium heritage grapes in South Africa, there’s great pride with it and customers want to buy it, they want to drink it, they want to age it and we have to put the best wines through. Because there are fewer Cabernets there will be more vociferous bidding for the ones that make it through.”

Michael Fridjhon, who has over 40 years’ experience in the production, wholesale and retail sectors of the wine industry said: “Shiraz is more delicate than we’ve come to realise. We need to have the fruit express itself. We saw a few of those emerging, some very beautiful wines from the 2008’s to the 2012’s.” With these wines showing some great aging potential, even the younger vintages are worth buying now and keeping in the cellar for a few years.

Cathy van Zyl MW who judges locally and internationally and is a member of the Institute of Masters of Wine’s Council said: “One of the trends I’ve picked up in tasting red wines this year at the Nederburg Auction is that our winemakers are seeking a greater freshness or vivacity to the red wines. There’s also a trend towards being more savoury. I do appreciate that in the context, old South African wines, some of them can age beautifully to this red-fruit fudgy, richness, which we all really love. They endear themselves to us so often.”

Wine enthusiasts who have a preference for white wines won’t be disappointed either as they too received very complimentary reviews from the selection panel. “Chenin as a category had some very strong entries, a strong group. The consistency across the selection was strong and some lovely examples that we got out. It was very diverse as well, which I think is very important for buyers that there is going to be something for everybody, not just all one particular style” said panellist François Rautenbach. On the Sauvignon Blancs, Tim Atkin MW said he was surprised by the Sauvignons and how well they’ve aged. That was almost his stand-out flight. He said they were lovely, well-balanced and the use of oak, when it was there, was very well done. He thinks South Africans and auction buyers don’t tend to think of Sauvignon as something that will age very well or is worth buying but he would urge them that they should. William Wouters said of the Chardonnays: “I think a lot of them were well made, technically well made, very aromatic. I think we got a nice bunch of Chardonnays out of it and I hope people like it when they taste it also.”

This year’s Nederburg Auction will be held on 7 & 8 September at Nederburg in Paarl. The event will largely follow the same successful format as in 2017, yet in keeping with the theme, it will also evolve to ensure that the buyers who come back year after year are always provided with an element of surprise on arrival. The pre-auction tasting, hosted by the participating producers, will be on the Friday followed by the Charity Auction and dinner. The auction will be held on Saturday. Other key dates to note are the Wine Previews in both Cape Town (31 July) and Johannesburg (2 August). The Wine Previews are an opportunity for all invited guests to sample the wines included in the 2018 Auction and to start planning their bidding strategies.

Please click on the link to see a short video of this year’s selection tasting: www.nederburgauction.co.za/videos.

Any new buyers interested in purchasing wines at the 44^th Nederburg Auction will need to register as a buyer through the Nederburg Auction website.

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The full wine line-up for the 2018 Nederburg Auction follows in the table below (alphabetical):

Symbols: + New Participant       * Distell Tabernacle