Rosy Christmas in UK with SA wine

The winemakers (of the top 10 wines) then bid against one another for a slice of the R250 000 order at stake and De Meye secured the biggest piece of the pie.

Winemaker, Marcus Milner, the De Meye bidder at the auction, was excited at the auction outcome, “This was like winning an award but better because it included a very nice order for the wine. An added bonus, is the exposure we will get in the UK market, which up until now, has not been a target market for De Meye because of the extended effort required to establish a brand in such a crowded market.”

This popular wine, bottled in screw cap for the first time in 2009 is a good accompaniment to sushi, smoked salmon, crayfish and Cape Malay or Thai dishes. It retails locally at approximately R40.

Inverted Auction

Turning the traditional wine buying process on its head, the customers replaced the role of wine buyers, determining themselves which wines were short-listed for the auction.

With the help of Wines of South Africa (WOSA), the UK online wine retailer recruited over 50 independent SA wineries to submit their wines for rating by 50 of its top customers, with the best wines being entered in a live, online auction. One of the criteria for selection was that the winemakers had to be recognised by their peers but their wines had to have little or no presence in the UK market.

“It's wine buying as it should be,” explained Rowan Gormley, founder of Naked Wines. “It's quick, direct and powered by both the customer and the winemaker. We want winemakers to be judged and rewarded on their ability to make wine and not the size of their marketing budget and we want wine drinkers to get the wines they choose.”