Tag Archives: wine cellar

Top South African wine shops not in the malls, not on every street corner

MAKRO and Ultra Liquors are top of the pops for many bargain-hunters when it comes to South African wine shopping. However, where to go if price is just one of your criteria for choosing a wine store, if you’re also after a good shopping experience, knowledgeable folk and a selection that extends to craft and artisanal, cutting edge and the

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Best SA wine shops? On land, online, anywhere in the country, the world?

  WHO ARE the best of the specialists when it comes to SA wine retailers? See above or below for the prime candidates in South Africa, but have we left out anyone, any place? And, while we’re about it, where best to shop for South African wines anywhere else in the world?   Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellar Cape Town: CBD

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Mackenzie rubs shoulders with Paul Sauer in auction of top blends

  SHEW! Over R85 000 paid for one of the most expensive wines in the world, a single bottle of the Merlot-driven Petrus, 1989 vintage, and nearly R74K forked out for another top wine from Bordeaux, three bottles of ‘first growth’ blend Haut-Brion, also 30 years old. But arguably more impressive at the Strauss & Co / Wine Cellar auction

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Strauss & Co fine wine auction both confirming and confounding

FOR THE MOST PART, the results of Strauss & Co’s ‘Rhône-themed’ fine wine online auction conducted in collaboration with the merchants Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs from 6 to 14 April 2020 were to be expected. But how impressive was the demand for that youngster from Donovan Rall, and could that old Zandvliet really still be alive and well?

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“By far the most expensive South African Wine.” Constantia Wyn 1835

WINE CELLAR director and fine wine ‘addict’ Roland Peens drew attention to this marvel with a tweet. A unique bottle of sweet Constantia, vintage 1835, in a 750ml bottle on which the design of the current 500ml version from Klein Constantia is based, with a tarred label and “lightly dirty” capsule, from the private cellar of Château de Saint Aignan

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Confirmation of South Africa’s top ‘investable’ wines – 2019 auction data

KANONKOP PAUL SAUER tops the list of most ‘investment-worthy’ South African wines produced over the past 20 years and sold in 2019 at one of the various Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auctions or at the Cape Fine & Rare Wine Auction (CFRW) in Stellenbosch. That’s according to Roland Peens, director of Wine Cellar, the Cape Town-based merchants associated with

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Sadie, Meerlust, Veenwouden and Vilafonté top stars in online auction

  AFTER a bidding period lasting just over a week, the highest prices fetched for South African beauties at the inaugural Fine Wine Online Auction conducted by Strauss & Co in collaboration with merchant Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs were for the following: from Paarl cellars, KWV Tawny Port 1939, Veenwouden Classic 1993 and 1997 (red blend); from Somerset

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Alheit, Delaire Graff, Kanonkop, Klein Constantia, Raats, Sadie …

  THE MOST in-demand South African lots at the first Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction to be held in Cape Town, organised in collaboration with retailer Wine Cellar and sommelier Higgo Jacobs… Following the inaugural event in Johannesburg three months earlier, the Cape reds, whites and sweets to fetch over R2000 a bottle/750ml at the September sale were as follows:

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Some stellar performances at fine, rare wine auction – but 22% unsold

MULLING OVER results of the inaugural Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction in Johannesburg, waiting to hear feedback and comment from the organisers Wine Cellar and Sommelier Higgo Jacobs, there’s a fair bit to ponder. 78% of the 183 lots sold for R1.3m in total, the items ranging from single bottles to 12-bottle cases. “We think it’s a great start,”

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A new chapter in the history of South Africa’s fine, rare wine auctions?

THE CATALOGUE has been published; the countdown has begun. The first Fine South African Wine Auction by Strauss & Co, Wine Cellar Fine Wine Merchants and Sommelier Higgo Jacobs is set for 8 June 2019 in Johannesburg – with Cape Town next up come September in what will become an ongoing programme of interest to wine investors and hedonists. “The

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Shows, Festivals, Tastings, Celebrations… Best SA Wine Events in April

  THIS IS the first year that the Stellenbosch Wine Festival is held in Cape Town, instead of Stellenbosch! And just how much progress has Riesling from the Cape winelands made over the past 10 or 20 years? There are quite a few top Wine SA events to contemplate going to in April 2019, whether you’re in Nelspruit, Cape Town,

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Top tastings at fine wine cellars in Johannesburg and Cape Town

ON THE evenings of Wednesday 6 March and Thursday 14 March, there will be walk-around tastings at Caroline’s Fine Wine Cellars in Cape Town showing 25 of the 5 Star laureates in the 2019 edition of Platter’s SA Wine Guide. For the list, see here. At the tutored tastings on the evenings of Thursday 14 March and Wednesday 20 March,

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Best prices for South Africa’s Top 20 Cabs: Cellar Door vs Wine Shops

WITH South Africa’s Cabernet Sauvignon particularly topical in May, following Winemag’s annual review of the category for their Prescient Report, it seemed a good time to circulate an update of the prices being charged for the country’s leading examples – the Top 20 Cabs according to the SA Wine Classification. Cellar-door prices are those posted by the producers and the market survey

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South Africa’s top wine shops online, on shelf, on price, on service, et al

THERE ARE plenty of wine shops with an online presence delivering South African vino to most corners of the country and around the world, but who’s doing the best job, how to weigh them up against one another, where to go for that elusive beauty or special bargain from the Cape? A survey of which stores offer a good number of the

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