A high-powered American whose California winery used to sell wine for around R8 000 a bottle has bought Mulderbosch, an estate in the prime Koelenhof area of Stellenbosch, for an undisclosed sum.
He is just one of a number of wealthy foreigners who are moving into the Cape winelands in a big way.
American Charles Banks, who used to own the cult California winery Screaming Eagle, heads the California-based investment group Terroir Capital which has bought Mulderbosch.
Banks is a former president of CSI Capital Management, which handles investments for millionaire professional athletes drawn from the football, basketball and baseball world. Punk rockers Green Day and Hollywood movie stars were also reportedly his clients.
Andre Morgenthal, spokesman for Wines of South Africa (Wosa), said the amount of international investment in the local wine industry was definitely a vote of confidence in South Africa.
“We don’t need to feel inferior to any other winemaking region in the world,” said Morgenthal.
He said Terroir Capital’s recent acquisition of Mulderbosch kept up the positive momentum created by the World Cup legacy.
However, while a number of foreigners owned property in the Cape Winelands, the wine region was not being completely taken over. “The majority are investors or shareholders and so the estates are not 100 percent foreign owned.”
According to an article on Wosa’s website, wineries owned by or with foreign interest total 111, about 16 percent of the total.
The owners are mostly Dutch, French, British, German, American and Swiss, although countries such as Israel, Russia, Singapore, Australia and the Congo are also piling in.
Among the more prominent foreigners are Anne Cointreau-Huchon from a French Cognac-making family who bought Stellenbosch’s Morgenhof 10 years ago; May-Eliane de Lencquesaing, former owner of Château Pichon-Longueville; Comtesse de Lalande, who bought the farm Glenelly; and Preston Haskell of Haskell Vineyards, a flamboyant American property mogul based in Moscow.
Ben Truter, previous owner of Mulderbosch and Kanu winery, also in Stellenbosch, said Banks had told him this was the right time to make South African investments.
He said it could result in interest from other US investors.
Sean Griffiths, marketing manager of Mulderbosch, said most of the existing team would stay on.
Andy Erickson, winemaker at Screaming Eagle, will lead the Mulderbosch winemaking team beginning with the 2011 vintage, although cellarmaster Richard Kershaw will remain in place.
Griffiths said Andre Shearer of Cape Classics, which exports South African wines including those from Mulderbosch to the US, had introduced Banks to South Africa.
“It’s fantastic for SA wine. The company could have invested anywhere but they obviously see value in what we have achieved here.”
Griffiths described Banks as a “dynamic, entrepreneurial, straight -shooting guy” who “knows exactly what he wants”.
Terroir also purchased Tulbagh Mountain Vineyards in September.
Banks earlier told the Wine Spectator he was looking for other opportunities in South Africa.