Date moved to allow for white wines and visitors

For the 32 years of its existence, the Nederburg Auction has been held during the first quarter of the year; March or April on each occasion except for the second event, when it took place on a blistering hot mid-February day.

All that is set to change in 2007, when it has been announced the event will take place over 28^th and 29^th September.

Among the more understandable reasons for this change of timing advanced by Auction Manager, Christine Joubert, is that of alleviating pressures on the Nederburg winemaking team, who are still focused on the harvest during the time the auction is traditionally held. Then, while one can see Ms Joubert’s point of wanting to attract more international trade after a healthy increase in overseas’ sales this year (at 16.5%, the highest since 1998), the end of September would probably be too late to catch the lucrative Christmas trade, especially in the northern hemisphere. One wonders if her justification that the ‘international wine calendar is particularly congested during April [and] September is a time when more northern hemisphere buyers, in particular, can visit South Africa’ will see the benefits envisaged. From a weather point of view, of course, September can be a dicey month.

Industry calendar watchers will doubtless have already noted a particularly interesting feature of the change of date. The Cape Winemakers’ Guild Auction is customarily held during the first weekend in October. Having shifted a few years back to allow for the sales of young wines, is Nederburg further muscling in on the CWG’s event?

The principal reason given for postponing the Nederburg event is, however, according to Ms Joubert, ‘to accommodate new vintage specialist white wines’. The significant increase in the number of serious white varietals and blended wines made by top producers calls for an appropriate showcase. September gives vintners the opportunity to present their current vintage whites for consideration. This appears to be quite a development of the older policy of offering both red and white wines of a minimum age: the youngest white wine on this year’s auction was two years. Now, white wines from the harvest a bare six months before will be offered to Nederburg buyers. Of course, apart from some sauvignon blancs, many of the Cape’s top ‘serious’ white wines –  including, of course, the longer-oaked ones – are not nowadays released in the year of harvest at all.

The change of date didn’t catch the CWG unawares, says Gary Jordan, chair of the CWG. ‘There had been rumours of a date change for a while already, so when Christine Joubert phoned me prior to the Nederburg press release going out, it wasn’t a big surprise.’ The Guild and its 37 winemaker members might be seen as the David to Distell’s Goliath in this situation but they think not. ‘I am personally flattered that the Nederburg Auction management thinks that the CWG is on the right track – it is obvious that Nederburg had to “adapt or die!”’ Jordan comments.

He doesn’t see the two events in competition with each other, pointing out that the CWG Auction is open to everyone and attracts many private buyers for the wines produced especially for this event. Attendance at Nederburg is by invitation only and only licensees may bid for the wines that, apart from specific Nederburg lots, generally represent previously released standard production.