A salmanazar and several jeroboams are among the more exotic sized bottles in a line up of outstanding South African wines donated to a high-profile charity auction at Cape Wine 2004, the four-day wine trade fair taking place in Cape Town on March 30.
The biggest of the collection is the nine-litre salmanazar (equivalent to 12 regular bottles of wine), which is a 1999 Shiraz from La Motte in Franschhoek, owned by someone with an enormous reputation to match. She is Hanneli Rupert, the internationally celebrated mezzo-soprano who is also the daughter of entrepreneur Anton Rupert, founder of the Rembrandt Group.
The La Motte mega-Shiraz and other stellar wines will go under the hammer of auctioneer Charles Rudd in aid of two wineland charities — Dopstop, a project established in 1995 to promote the responsible consumption of alcohol among rural communities, and the Makukhanye Gospel Choir from the Nkquebela township in Robertson.
Dopstop will receive 75% of the proceeds, with the balance going to the choir that will also be launching its debut CD at the event.
Some of the other wines in the illustrious collection to be auctioned include John Platter five-star winners like the 2001 Foundry Wines Shiraz and 2002 Kumala Journey’s End Chardonnay, as well as eight consecutive vintages (1986 to 1993) of Klein Constantia’s Vin de Constance, once a favourite of Napoleon during his years of exile on St Helena. The modern-day Vin de Constance is also one of the few wines ever awarded five stars by Platter.
Other big wines on auction will be the three-litre jeroboams donated by De Toren–a 2001 Fusion V, (a Bordeaux blend that earned a top ten placing in the World Cabernet Tasting in Switzerland), and Boekenhoutskloof, with a 2001 Shiraz. Boekenhoutskloof winemaker Marc Kent is widely acknowledged for having put Cape Shiraz on the international map.
The internationally acclaimed Hamilton Russell Vineyards has also donated a jeroboam, the 2001 Pinot Noir, judged the finest Pinot Noir on last year’s International Wine & Spirits Competition in London.
Other noteworthy collectors’ items are a magnum of the 1998 De Wetshof Bateleur Chardonnay, made by Danie de Wet, who holds a Vinexpo Grand Prix d’Honneur for Chardonnay, and a 2000 Ken Forrester Chenin Blanc, a wine that helped restore the much deserved reputation of this varietal.
Yet another is the 1998 Lanzerac Pinotage. This Stellenbosch winery was the first to commercially bottle South Africa’s indigenous red varietal over 40 years ago.
Revealing their personal preferences during the auction will be some well-known and well-respected international wine journalists attending the exhibition, some of whom have agreed to donate favourite wines to the auction, including Tim Atkin, former editor of Harper’s. To date, the exhibition, hosted by Wines of South Africa, has attracted close on 1 000 registrations, most of them from the UK, Europe, North America and Asia.
Wine Spectator favourites participating are Rustenberg Wines with a 1997 vintage of its famous Stellenbosch John X Merriman Bordeaux-style blend and Raats Family Wines. Bruwer Raats has donated a 1,5-litre bottle of the 2001 Cabernet Franc, singled out for praise by Jancis Robinson. For an updated list of wines on auction, visit www.wine.co.za or www.wosa.co.za.