INLSA

Mike Tarr

Mike Tarr

They say the men (and women) from the Boland and Western Cape love their rugby almost as much as they love their wives or husbands.

Naturally they also love their wines, which grow abundantly in this lovely part of the world.

Last Saturday morning saw the making of a little bit of history in the region, or to be exact, the famous Nederburg estate in Paarl, where for the first time in the history of the Nederburg Auction – now in its 37th year – huge screens which normally give information about the bidding for South Africa’s best wines, suddenly came alive with images of the rampaging Boks Fiji-ing their way to a memorable victory.

At one stage in the big auction hall where the serious business takes place over two days, everyone had their hands in the air as Danie Rossouw, and of course The Beast, made a huge impact with their tries.

In fact it led a photographer to try and capture the image.

“It might be the first time at the auction that everyone has their hands in the air – not to bid for a particular wine, but to celebrate the Boks,” he quipped.

In fact there was consternation the day before the game as some felt that the official opening of the auction was more important than a Rugby World Cup match involving our beloved Bokke.

Apparently the top brass of Distell, who put on this wonderful weekend every September, realised that wine and rugby do go together and delayed the official opening of the auction.

So there we were sipping on our Nederburg Brut and pink Pongraz while nibbling away at some delicious breakfast goodies.

As guest speaker, top US wine blogger David White exclaimed after the final whistle: “Thank goodness I can address a smiling and happy room after this Bok victory.

“Perhaps now everyone will spend more money.”

And spend they did.

Everyone knows that times are tight, revenues are down, retail shops are struggling and restaurants are closing down.

But because of the quality and reputation of our wines, overall income jumped to R6 133 840 at the weekend, which was up 8 percent from the R5.7 million fetched last year – and that, despite about 19 percent less cases on offer.

Of course us plebs in the press are just there to observe.

You can only bid if you own a restaurant or liquor outlet or major chain of supermarkets, so there we sit wide-eyed as the bidders raise their paddles and fork out thousands for wines they think their customers are going to buy, or some, just because they want a special wine to drink or keep for their children.

The highlight of the auction was the record R68 000 paid for a single case of 6 x 750 ml bottles of Monis Collectors Port 1948 (R11 333 per bottle).

Thankfully we peasants got to try this before the auction began and wow, what an amazing taste.

Strange to think it was made the year before I was born!

And for all those who only have negative things to say about Nigerians in our country, it was bought by Nigerian businessman and importer of wine, Obi Josephat Ndibe.

It is the second year that Ndibe has surprised local buyers by snatching away some of South Africa’s rare wines.

Of course this is the top end of the scale. Most of us buy wines at supermarkets or here in Durban at that outlet, Liberty Liquors, which won the prize in our Daily News consumers’ competition and was voted top liquor retail outfit.

Once again most of us who shop at supermarkets will be pleased that Checkers spent the most money (R611 000) followed by Spar (R599 000) with Makro and Pick n Pay also among the top 10 buyers.

Apart from the top 10 buyers accounting for 58 percent of the total sales, 24 foreign buyers were responsible for close to half of the total auction sales.

With the largest increase in prices this year among red wines, the average price shot up 43 percent to R2 166 per nine-litre case.

The Private Collection item of Chateau Libertas 1961 (3 x 750ml – R6 666 per bottle) fetched the highest price of R20 000 per case.

The high prices paid for very rare, old South African red wines highlighted the appreciation of these scarce, special wines, many of which are only available at the auction, in limited quantities.

So all in all a great weekend in the winelands, with the Boks downing the Fijians and the Nederburg guests downing the finest reds and whites money can buy. Have a great – hiccup – week.