Boschendal turns down £20m purchase offer

Ray Smuts DESPITE CONSIDERABLE interest in the prestigious Boschendal wine estate once owned by Cecil John Rhodes - including a £20 million offer from a European concern - it remains firmly on the market. Don Tooth, m.d. of Anglo American Farms, will now focus on selling the the wine component - that which is Boschendal - as a separate entity, leaving a considerable amount of vacant land that needs to be capitalised by an investor possessing agricultural or development prowess. Around one-third of the estate's 260 000 cases produced annually is exported, much of it to the United Kingdom where the reds enjoy pride of place in the upper five pounds Sterling category.