Rhône Theme
Timed Online Auction, 2 - 12 February 2024
Rhône | International & South African offering
About the SessionThe first sale of the 2024 Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auction calendar is an exciting Rhône valley and Rhône-style offering and has fast-become one of the most popular at Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auctions.
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About this Item
Eben Sadie is South Africa’s most revered winemaker and he arguably kick-started the local fine wine revolution. Over two decades his pursuit for quality in the Swartland has been unparalleled in South Africa and he was voted Winemaker of the Year in 2017 by the International Master of Wine Institute. Eben’s wines were influenced by the Rhône and Spain, with traditional local varieties sourced from pockets of old bush vines and unique terroirs. Long-ageing Columella is often regarded as South Africa’s best red, while Palladius similarly offers an incredible Swartland expression and decades of longevity. The old vine single vineyard series, which was first released in the 2009 vintage, is now firmly the most sought-after release of the year. Mev Kirsten is South Africa’s rarest white wine, produced from a century old Stellenbosch vineyard, while the now legendary Skurfberg received 100 points from Tim Atkin in 2020.
An incredible rare opportunity to purchase very early vintages of South Africa's Iconic Red.
Columella is named after the ancient Roman writer who produced perhaps the earliest good treatise on viticulture in his De re rustica. Starting in 2000, Eben’s goal was to produce the finest expression of the Swartland and today Columella is South Africa’s most coveted red wine.
Provenance
Wine Cellar Private Client
Critics Ratings
‘Bright medium red. Captivating high-pitched nose combines crushed red cherry and raspberry, rose petal and violet; real Burgundian perfume here. Then tight, bright and sharply delineated, offering terrific cut and floral lift to its pungent red fruit and orange zest flavors. Finishes with outstanding subtle length. This is totally different in style from all the vintages before it; following his experience in 2007, Sadie picked this vintage earlier as well. This wonderfully pure wine will merit an even higher score if it deepens with more bottle age.’ - Stephen Tanzer, Vinous, 95+/100 (Jan 2015)
'Deep blood crimson. Very perfumed and lifted, forest berries and night flowers and garrigue-scented. Very taut and tight on the palate, the most tailored wine of all – Saville Row tannins with exquisitely stitched seams, achingly elegant. A long mineral backbone, yet fleshy red currant and cherry fruit, tangy and pert with a gently earthy undertow. There is a real prancing and life to this wine, a new precision and deftness. Intense and incredibly beautiful.' - Tamlyn Currin, JancisRobinson.com, 18.5/20 (Jun 2011)
'Well-composed 2008 complex, mineral & earthy; finely structured with pinpoint acidity, classic tannins. As sensual as brilliant 2007 (5 stars) with its gravel-tinged fruit. Always shiraz with 20% mourv, basket press; 2 yrs Fr oak, new component down to only 20%.' - Platter’s SA Wine Guide 2020, 4.5*
'The 2008 Columella is a Shiraz based blend with a little Mourvèdre grown on mainly granite soils and aged for two years in barrels. It has a very distinct bouquet with vibrant, well defined, wild dark berried fruit intermingling with subtle aromas of dark plum, blackberry leaf and a touch of cassis all with great precision. The palate is medium-bodied with fine but sturdy tannins, supremely well balanced with superb acidity and expression, finishing with great mineralité on the finish that has slight blur of alcohol' - Neal Martin, Wine Advocate, 92/100 (Aug 2011)
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