Also on auction will be five cases of another Brözel wine, the 1988 Eminence, a gold medallist on the Budapest competition. It was praised for its rich botrytis character and aromas of “honey, raisin and spice”. Both wines are sold exclusively on the auction.
The biennial International Botrytis Type Wine and Sweet Competition forms part of the Fédération Mondiale des Grands Concours Internationaux de Vins et Spiriteux.
The only wine outside Europe to do so, the 30 year-old Edelkeur was also the oldest wine to achieve this rating on the 2007 Hungarian showcase that drew entries worldwide. Competing with famous-name Tokays, Trockenbeerenauslese wines and Sauternes, it was lauded by the judges for its “aroma of fruit, burnt wood, coffee bean (and) smoke”, its “smooth, rich and concentrated” characters and excellent “limpidity, colour and persistence”.
Says Nederburg cellarmaster Razvan Macici, who entered the wine as a tribute to Gunter Brözel, who made the wine and who paved the way for the noble late harvest category in South Africa: “Given that Günter Brözel's first Edelkeur, made in 1969, received its first of many accolades on the 1972 Concours Mondial de Vins, also held in Budapest, it seemed right that we should participate. That it scored so highly, is fine acknowledgment indeed. The wine is remarkably lively and drinking it is a rare and special experience.”
“We decided to enter the vintage dessert wines to see how they would stand up against the international benchmarks and were absolutely delighted with the results”, says Macici.
More recent vintages of Nederburg's Edelkeur – the 2002 and 2003 (a Veritas double gold medallist and winner of a silver medal on the 2007 International WINE Challenge (IWC)), and the 2004 – are also on offer this year, as is the 2003 Eminence, another IWC silver winner. “Buyers will be able to select from the younger versions, which obviously show more vivacity given their youth.”
They too have earned kudos on local and international events and Macici has earned many trophies, best-of-class ratings and gold medals for his noble late harvest wines.
Although the number of wines on the Nederburg Auction is smaller than in recent years, there are more noble late harvest wines than usual. Including Nederburg's once-off Sparkling Noble Late Harvest of the 2001 vintage, believed to be the only one of its kind in the world, there are 15 such wines on offer. Other noble late harvest producers participating this year include Delheim, which has been represented at every Nederburg Auction since its inception in 1975, as well as Kanu, Ken Forrester and Paul Cluver.
