Bloemendal up for grabs 5 February 2008

Ace Durbanville winery goes on auction

Well-known Bloemendal is as established a part of the Durbanville wine landscape as is its ragged-haired, surf-riding owner and winemaker Jackie Coetzee – one of the Cape’s more colourful, even eccentric vinous players. Now the prime estate is going on auction lock, stock and barrel - and everyone is wondering what this fine winemaker is up to.

Quietly advertised in weekend newspapers, the upcoming sale of Bloemendal  at the end of February is a talking point in Cape vineyards and cellars. It is a substantial Durbanville property with 149 hectares under wines and a reputation for consistently good, if unassuming wine (the Suider-terras Sauvignon Blanc is regarded as one of the country’s finest). There’s quite a bit of history there too. According to the estate’s website, the 300 year old farm ‘originally supplied fresh produce to the Dutch East India Company ships on their way to the Spice Islands’. It’s first cellar was completed in 1920, by Jackie Coetzee's grandfather. 

A Cape Times report puts the value of the property at R130 million. Coetzee, according to the newspaper, is not forthcoming about the reasons for selling, except that he ‘wants to get on with his life’. For people who know him, this is in character. (And so many millions would presumably be quite helpful in doing so.)

What is unusual is that the wine farm – it also has two houses, a number of labourers' cottages as well as two restaurants and conference facilities – is put up for auction. This signals that Coetzee sees this as the best way to maximise the selling price, or is in a hurry. Usually sales on this scale would involve quiet behind-the-scene negotiations.

Jonathan Smiedt of the ClareMart Auction Group told the Cape Times that this was the largest auction of its kind he had come across.