Alheit outguns other top young winemakers Guns at Strauss auction

Alheit outguns other top young winemakers at Strauss auction

11/2022 Mike Froud Leave a comment

IT WAS ‘all’ about Alheit at Strauss & Co’s ‘Young Guns’ wine auction. Well, Crystallum got a look-in with their Pinot Noir, but otherwise the attention of the big spenders was focused mainly on the Chenin Blancs of winemaker Chris Alheit – he who is based on the Ridge in Hemel-en-Aarde between Hermanus and Caledon but who sources his grapes wherever he considers the vineyards special enough. As spokesman for the auctioneers Roland Peens put it: “Serious bidding on Alheit 2017s, many well above high estimates! The gap to the rest is big.”

The top price paid on the day was R32 830 for a case of the last vintage of Radio Lazarus, made by Alheit and his team in 2017 before the vines that the grapes came from in Bottelary-Stellenbosch were pulled out. For more about the auction and the full results of the sale, click here. The producers whose wines were curated by Cape Town retailer Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs included: Alheit, B Vintners, Blankbottle, Carinus, Crystallum, Damascene, David & Nadia, Erika Obermeyer, Harry Hartman, Hogan, Illimis, Lelie van Saron, Metzer, Momento, Natte Valleij, Paserene, Patatsfontein, Rall, Restless River, Saurwein, Savage, Scions of Sinai, Sijnn, Sons of Sugarland, Storm, Thistle & Weed, Thorne & Daughters, Trizanne, Van Loggerenberg.