Whites impress at Nederburg Auction

Razvan Macici, Nederburg cellarmaster

There is a 12-year-old partially wood-fermented Chenin Blanc Reserve made from Simondium bush vines; a ten-year-old Riesling, the Private Bin S316, also with a Simondium provenance; and the five-year-old II Centuries Sauvignon Blanc, made from individually selected Cape Agulhas and Darling fruit and aged in small French oak. All produced by the present cellar master, Razvan Macici, they show a finesse and vibrant longevity suggesting they still have quite some cellaring potential ahead of them.

As this year marks the 40th anniversary of the auction, established in 1975 as a platform to sell Edelkeur, this iconic noble late harvest wine features prominently. There are three of the cellar's signature Edelkeurs on offer - 1979, 1993 and the 2006 vintage.

Also on offer is the Private Bin Semillon Noble Late Harvest from the 2000 vintage. What makes this wine such a collectible is that noble rot so seldom occurs in Semillon vineyards. From the same vintage, there is also an appealingly spicy Private Bin Gewürztraminer Special Late Harvest. The other two sweet wines of the line-up are a gracious and still very lively 1989 Eminence - the last vintage made by Günter Brözel - and the velvety 1990.

Brözel's remarkable 1964 Port has reached its half-century in excellent health and is silky and rich with a hint of spice. Each bottle has been hand-numbered and topped with a wax seal.

Reds dominated by Cabs

The grapes for Macici's debut 2009 Grenache for the Private Bin series were sourced from Paarl bush vines. Fermented in open tanks, it is a big, bold and plush wine with excellent ageing potential.

Cabernet Sauvignon, Nederburg's signature red varietal, dominates the reds. There are the two vintages of the R163: the 2009 and 2007, while the varietal also appears in the R103 Cabernet Sauvignon/Shiraz blend of 2009 and in the R109 Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot of both 1999 and 2009.

Shiraz features in the R121 from the 2006 vintage, a dense and opulent wine with concentrated berry and spice and the capacity to age at least another 20 years.

There are two other age-worthy reds from the 2007 vintage, single-vineyard R104 Petit Verdot from Simondium and a bush-vine R172 Pinotage, structured to last a decade or more, in Macici's opinion.

For more information, go to www.nederburgauction.co.za.