IT WAS A tussle between Meerlust and Kanonkop for the highest price fetched by South African wine at Strauss & Co’s ‘Bordeaux Auction’ conducted online mid-April 2024 – R4885pb paid for both a Meerlust Rubicon from the 1980s and a Kanonkop Paul Sauer not yet 10 years old. As for the French wines on sale, the most-in-demand included the reds
Read moreSTRAUSS & Co’s wine department was happy with the results of their timed online ‘2014 Vintage’ auction that came to a close on 11 March ’24. Consultant Roland Peens, director of fine wine merchant ‘Wine Cellar’ in Cape Town, reported that the Reserve was R545 150, the Hammer R718 100, Inclusive R841 973 – an 89% sell through with 12 lots unsold.
Read moreAS IF it had been stage-managed! Just over a week after The Sadie Family was lauded for the umpteenth time as South Africa’s top cellar in the 2024 edition of Platter’s guide, the results of a poll conducted by Winemag.co.za and then of an auction by Strauss & Co served to confirm the status of the country’s No. 1 –
Read moreBOTTLES of the mysterious and rare George Spies Cabernet (Durbanville grapes, Paarl cellar) are regularly made available via the South African auction house Strauss & Co, with 750ml of the 1968 vintage sold during the Bordeaux Theme sale on 17 September 2023 going for over R23K – the highest price paid for a local wine on the day. That said, the
Read moreHIGHLIGHTS of the Chenin & Pinotage online sale by South African auction house Strauss & Co on 11 September ’23 – wines that fetched over R2000 a bottle on the day: CHENIN BLANC Sadie Family’s Skurfberg 2015 R44 555 (US$2360) paid for 6×750ml: R7425/750ml Sadie Family’s ‘T Voetpad 2017 R18 760 (US$994) paid for 3×750ml: R6253/750ml Alheit Radio Lazarus 2015 R9967
Read moreSA HIGHLIGHTS of the Strauss & Co Wine Auction held mid-May 2023. Billed merely as the private collection of a single owner, the online sale included wines from around the world – the following are those made in South Africa that attracted bids of over R2000 a bottle/750ml. Sadie Family Palladius 2004 (White Blend) R29 313 paid for 4x750ml:
Read moreAT THE FIRST Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction of 2023, The Sadie Family’s red blend Columella fetched the highest prices paid for Cape beauties during a sale of collectables from the Rhône Valley, France, and Rhône-style offerings from Australia, the USA and South Africa. Most in demand of all the wines – procured by Cape Town retailer Wine Cellar
Read moreALMOST as newsworthy as the record-breaking price of over R58K fetched for a 500ml Vin de Constance 1987 at the ‘Cape Heritage Wine’ Auction by Strauss & Co end-August 2022, was the ‘bargain’ price that the 1957 Chateau Libertas went for. A 750ml bottle of this old Chateau Lib blend from Cinsaut and Cabernet Sauvignon that came out of the
Read moreKANONKOP, De Toren, Vilafonté, Meerlust, Raats, Alto… These were the most-wanted wines in terms of South African producers at Strauss & Co’s Bordeaux-themed auction conducted in Johannesburg mid-2022. Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2015 fetched nearly R4000 a bottle. SA ‘first growth’; good vintage. However, the really big-ticket items were from France, Italy and the USA: Pétrus, Screaming Eagle, Harlan, Haut Brion,
Read moreTHE R43 244 fetched for a single bottle of the 1966 GS Cabernet at the Strauss & Co auction in Johannesburg on 15 May 2022 was the second-highest price ever paid for this wine – the highest being R91 040, fetched in a sale conducted by the same auction house in September 2021. The occasion this time round was the
Read moreRATHER IMPRESSIVE! At the sale of 10-year-old wines by the South African auction house Strauss & Co, somebody paid over R4000 for a bottle of dessert wine from Andrea and Chris Mullineux’s Roundhouse farm outside Malmesbury in the Swartland. The bottle of ‘Essence’ is just 250ml in size, which would put the cost of a standard 750ml equivalent at over
Read moreDE TOREN, SADIE FAMILY, Porseleinberg and Hartenberg fetched the highest bids for South African wines at the Strauss & Co auction of Shiraz and Rhône-style blends on 21 Feb 2022. The rare and sought-after lots on sale featured various local as well as French producers, with other respected names from the Cape winelands including Badenhorst, Boschkloof, Cederberg, David & Nadia,
Read moreOF THE SOUTH African wines auctioned by Strauss & Co on 25 July 2021, Cordoba Crescendo 2003 attracted most interest from the online bidders. Although, selling for R2150 a bottle (R12 898 for 6×750ml bottles), it fetched less than what many might have expected of such a ‘cult’ label, a Cab Franc-driven blend from the Helderberg in Stellenbosch – this vintage
Read moreCAN YOU BELIEVE IT! Just after a case of Alheit’s 2017 Radio Lazarus sold for R34 140, i.e. R5690pb, a single bottle of the 2018 vintage sold for R25 036, followed by a bottle of the 2012 for R6449… Whether or not whoever paid over R25K thought he or she was buying one or six bottles of this wine
Read moreAMAZING! They’d never get away with it in the modern era: different bottles, different-looking labels, but same wine, same vintage. Things were so different back then. Apparently not all Grand Constance / Groot Constantia wine of the 1800s was bottled at source. It was not uncommon for this sweet nectar to be shipped from the Cape to England and Europe
Read moreRECORDS APLENTY! There were five bottles up for grabs at the Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction held in Johannesburg on 14 September 2021. All South African wines, ranging from a 34-year-old dessert to one from a barrel first filled in 1800 – some buyers in the room, some bidding online and others phoning through. Never before had anybody paid
Read morePORSELEINBERG was South Africa’s star of the show at Strauss & Co’s August 2021 fine wine auction. The Rhône-themed line-up included the flagships of numerous top producers in the Cape winelands and France, with the local favourites including De Trafford of Stellenbosch, Mullineux and Porseleinberg of Riebeek-Kasteel as well as The Sadie Family of the Paardeberg outside Malmesbury. The top
Read moreANOTHER Strauss & Co Fine Wine (and Spirit) Auction done and dusted, another look at the sensational sweet wines of the world, cause to reflect once again on South Africa’s biggest names when it comes to Natural Sweet, Noble Late Harvest, Straw Wine and fortifieds. The thing is, while there are quite a number Classified as top Cape dessert wines
Read moreWHEN DISTELL submitted a little bottle of 200-year-old Grand Constance dessert wine for sale on the 2021 Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction it was estimated to fetch R80 000 to R130 000. After all, once destined for delivery to Napoleon and until recently secured in the Stellenbosch company’s ‘Tabernacle’, the Constantia museum piece has one hellava backstory. That it
Read moreUPS AND DOWNS were the order of the day at Strauss & Co’s mid-year fine wine online auction on 7 June 2021. Some of the wines highlighted by the Wine Cellar merchants and the auctioneers prior to the sale with a Stellenbosch theme didn’t attract quite the level of interest that was anticipated. The case of Laurence Graff Reserve 2011
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