'SA is pricing itself out of the market'
RAY SMUTS
SO expensive have some Cape auction wines become that top buyers including Makro are considering imports from France.
There is, say those in the know, a very real danger that auction wines are being priced out of the market, evidenced by comment from a restaurant manager at one of the leading eating establishments in the winelands: Prices have got out of hand and I would struggle to sell them with VAT and my price mark-up.
By way of illustration, a dozen or half a dozen bottles regularly commanded prices in the thousands of rands at the Cape Winemakers Guild auction earlier this month, the average per bottle price being R135. This exceeds prices paid for some Bordeaux Chateaux and famous domain wines from France.
At the Nederburg auction in April a rare 1994 Stellenzicht Syrah sold for R258 a bottle. By contrast French supermarket chain Auchan is selling Domaine de Rosiers '98 from Cote Rotie in the Upper Rhone Valley for around R109.
It is however not only the reds that are commanding high prices at auctions. A bottle of 1997 Thelema Chardonnay Reserve commmanded R250 at Nederburg.
Leading Cape vintner Vaughan Johnson expressed surprise at the price of a 1995 KWV Cathedral Cellar Cabernet - R217 a bottle at the Nederburg auction whereas the exellent Chateau Beychevelle '98 from St Julien in the Bordeaux region offered great value at about R149 a bottle.
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