WHAT’S YOUR favourite SA wine shop and why? Where do you shop for the best deals on South African wine? Who is most likely to have the wine you’re looking for – or good at getting you what they don’t have then and there? Your opinions and recommendations are welcome – it would be great to share them. In the meantime…

Following publication of the 2022 SA Wine and Cellar Classifications, the results of a survey focusing on the country’s leading retail wine stores has been made available to anybody on request – free to use, circulate and comment on as you wish. The aim of the survey was to establish which stores offer the widest selection of wines in the 2022 Hall of Fame, and what the merchants charge for these beauties. The results of the survey are in the form of an Excel spreadsheet comparing the availability and price of 31 wines at 18 stores.

Some of the findings? Three stores stood out from the rest in terms of how many wines they had on offer, with one offering the biggest selection… Many of the merchants were out of stock when it came to certain tiny production runs, seasonal releases and wines available on allocation, but in many instances, what they did stock was more competitively priced than at the wineries themselves! Among the top cellars with best representation at national retail level: Beaumont, Cederberg, Delaire Graff, Saronsberg, Spier, Tokara and the producers of the world-famous Vin de Constance, Klein Constantia, who were selling their latest release for R1295 per 500ml – more than what you can get this dessert wine for from all but one of the retailers surveyed.