On a pointless Gaborone Thursday evening Distell kindly afforded my wife and I an invitation to go sample some soon to be hard to find wines that are the star attraction of the Nederburg Rare South African Wine Auction. This annual oenological shopping spree is a blood sport really, but sitting in a conference room at Phakalane Golf Estate with great examples of the grape a thousand kilometres away from the high rollers and supermarket chain dominated auction action, who gave a damn.
Maybe it’s a thing I picked up in Cape Town, but the whites were not very interesting, they only earned a sniff and pour from me. Partially pacing myself I launched into the reds that came around with more reserve than broke ladies at a fashion sale. I never got the chance to honestly find a red I could quaff with reckless abandon for the rest of the evening, the somewhat dry somewhat witty wine master Bennie Howard was too skilled a director of the tasting and kept things moving along briskly. With a good mix of clever wines, accessible wines, and a few that needed to grow up a little before they would be useful the wine sampling was a great example of what could soon be lurking in local wine aficionados’ wine cellars.
Stand out favourites included the Le Bonheur Prima 2001, pretty much a steal at a reserve price of R1200.00, however being a wine auction and only 40 cases of 12 bottles each being the only stock available this year, its gona be war. The Nederburg Private Bin R181 Merlot 2002 is another smooth criminal that will surely bring out the gangster in a many of the wine hunters at the auction in September. Another Nederburg nca was the Private Bin R172 Pinotage 2003 a total obscenity at the case reserve price of R900.00 for 12 bottles... actually one could just imagine what was going to transpire at Nederburg in the Western Cape come the 16th and 17th September... Anyway in Gaborone the subdued crowd of mainly journalists, secret wine lovers and one or two total worshippers of the vine came alive when the first red gurgled out of the bottle. Wine Master Bernie had a hell of time keeping order by the final drop of two totally unnecessary desert wines, Nederburg’s Eminence 2005 and Edelkeur 2006, both sourced from private bins. The sweet finish left a couple of ladies looking intensely annoyed, murmuring about, “This was what wine should taste like, pity about the small bottles...” Errm yes, well...
To keep Botswana wine lovers from feeling like they are being teased unnecessarily, a local bottle store chain, Liquorama (+267 7504 1145 - Ronald), offers to bid on the behalf of the willing and able. After tax and everything else, it should still be a good wine buying session, with many of the wines deemed “too rare to taste” in the Anthony Barne MW (celebrated wine drinker) authored tasting notes. If anyone is thinking of getting their share, they best make arrangements quick as the whole world is invited to the auction in September. The finest of elixirs from Alto to Zonnebloem will be in attendance, right alongside underappreciated beauties like Chateau Libertas and relative unknowns to the main stream such as Nuy, Fryer’s Cove, Joubert-Tradauw. It promises to be a heady two days of high stakes wine auctioneering, wine-lands hospitality and well earned elegant hangovers at the Nederburg Wine Auction 2011, on September the 16th and 17th.
Back to the quaff of the night, the Le Bonheur Prima 2001, it was last seen being poured to the brim into two glasses by the marketing manager of a casino chain with very much an air of contented relief. Ugh, hated her!
Nederburg Rare South African Wine Auction 2011 Catalouge
Big willy wines
