Cape Winemakers Guild Auction Needs a Fine Nose
The Cape Winemakers Guild Auction has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1983. The late Billy Hofmeyr, a land surveyor and wine enthusiast, transformed a casual gathering of like-minded winemakers into a slightly more structured group, originally called the Cape Independent Winemakers’ Guild. Hofmeyr’s passion led him to plant Bordeaux varieties at his Welgemeend Estate, producing South Africa’s first commercially available Bordeaux blend in 1979. Within a year, the guild members decided on an annual auction, likely influenced by Stephan Welz, who at the time was CEO of Sotheby’s.
In 1983 the late Billy Hofmeyr transformed what had been a regular meeting of like-minded winemakers into a slightly more structured grouping called (at the time) the Cape Independent Winemakers’ Guild. The original purpose of the gatherings had been to taste and compare their own wines with international benchmarks. Hofmeyr, a land surveyor by profession and an enthusiastic wine amateur, had — unusually for the era and especially in the winelands — a fine collection of French wines.
Read Also: Agoa extension fails to calm farm trade worries
His passion for wine had led him to purchase a small property between Stellenbosch and Paarl, which he planted with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, merlot and malbec — the main Bordeaux varieties. His Welgemeend Estate Wine 1979 became South Africa’s first commercially available Bordeaux blend, a vintage ahead of Meerlust Rubicon.
From Johannesburg to the Cape
I was Sotheby’s wine specialist in South Africa at the time, helping to prepare the first catalogue, a hardcover cloth-bound document featuring formal photos of the original members. While the pictures had an almost sepia quality, the prices were modest: a Rust-en-Vrede cabernet sold for less than R20, and magnums of Delheim Grand Reserve 1982 fetched R40. Today, the average price paid per bottle on the 2025 sale is R1,500, a significant increase in constant rand. Although the auction began in Johannesburg for commercial reasons, it has been held in the Cape ever since.
Just as the pictures of the winemakers had an almost sepia quality to them, so did the prices: Rust-en-Vrede auction cabernet for less than R20, magnums of Delheim Grand Reserve 1982 at R40. The average price paid per bottle on the 2025 sale was R1,500, a huge increase in constant rand. While the idea of hosting the auction in Johannesburg was commercially sound, in a few years the sale migrated to the Cape, where it has been held ever since. Now the Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) Auction, once the slightly esoteric “poor cousin” to the Nederburg Auction, is the sole surviving sale for collectors seeking a curated selection of wines available directly from reputable producers.
Read Also: Brad Binder heads to World Superbikes with BMW
This year the 42nd annual sale of auction wines produced by the CWG will take place on October 2 and 3. There are 58 items on offer, mostly from the 2023-25 vintage. Buying on the guild sale comes with a caveat: most of the wines are still not fully formed. They are all indisputably good but how much runway they have (and how much they may still need) is not always evident.
For example, I found the Storm pinot and the Storm chardonnay surprisingly inaccessible. I tasted the same vintages (but not the same barrels) at end-April, and the wines were more expressive. They are safe to buy on pedigree but (to extend the analogy) they are like looking at a week-old puppy and trying to determine if it will be a Crufts champion.
A Tasting of the Lot
The CWG generously makes available to me a full line-up of the auction wines to taste blind. I knew only the category I was judging, nothing else. More than 20% of the wines scored 95 or more, a remarkably high percentage, especially considering that my scores are generally two points below most of the other commentators writing about Cape wine. My two highest-scoring wines, the Savage syrah 2024 and Delaire-Graff Bordeaux blend 2022, both cracked 97. Among the whites, the chardonnays outshone the chenins, perhaps because the selectors favored angular, lean examples. Cabernets, Bordeaux blends, and shiraz/syrahs performed equally well.
Read Also: Foreign Investors Get Tariff Breaks on Pharmaceuticals
Other gold medal scores went to the Frans K Smit Sentinel White 2025, Hamilton Russell chardonnay 2025, Kershaw Ziggurat chardonnay 2025, Beaumont GG’s single vineyard chenin blanc 2025, De Trafford chenin 2025, Kershaw pinot 2024, Cederberg Black Slate shiraz 2024, Van Loggerenberg syrah 2025, Jordan Sophia 2024, Coenie Snyman’s Rock of Eye 2023, and Miles Mossop Maximillian 2023. My notes and scores are available here.
Looking Back at the Past
Pieter Ferreira is the only surviving original member still active in the guild, and he has some of his cap classique on this year’s sale. While most of the original members are still alive, their presence at the auction is a reminder of how much the industry has changed. The event has shifted from a small, intimate gathering to a major commercial sale, but the focus on quality remains constant. The wines on offer this year represent the best of what South African producers can achieve, even if they require a bit more patience to reach their full potential.
