Strauss & Co launches Africa’s first NFT auction with SA’s leading fine wine producers
Principal South African auction house Strauss & Co has partnered with five of SA's most respected fine wine producers to offer Africa’s first fine wine Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) on auction from 18-25 April.
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Principal South African auction house Strauss & Co has partnered with five of SA’s most respected fine wine producers to offer Africa’s first fine wine Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) on auction from 18-25 April. Capturing past, present and future vintages, these unique digital contracts encompass vertical collections of Klein Constantia Vin de Constance, Kanonkop Paul Sauer, Meerlust Rubicon, Mullineux Olerasay and Vilafonté Series C. Each NFT holds between 20 and 50 vintages, with collections from 66 to 288 bottles. Strauss & Co Fine Wine Auctions is a joint venture between leading fine wine merchant WineCellar.co.za, sommelier Higgo Jacobs and leading auction house, Strauss & Co.
“We are beyond excited to be launching Africa’s first NFT auction online which we believe can play an important part in generating awareness for South African fine wine internationally,” said Roland Peens WineCellar.co.za Director and Strauss & Co Fine Wine Specialist. “Various fine wine NFTs have become available over the last two years as the NFT market has boomed. Strauss & Co Fine Wine NFTs, however, offer a unique iconic South African industry collective of verticals direct from the producers, providing unprecedented ownership of vintage wines and futures to the collector and investor.”
Non-fungible tokens are a highly efficient way to package a collection of wines for trading and investment. The digital contract, stored on the polygon blockchain, includes all the provenance, pricing, transaction, sensorial and aging information. This importantly authenticates the bottles within the NFT since all the wines were selected from the estate’s library stocks, corresponding to each bottle’s seal-code. The transactions are extremely cheap and fast, and don’t add any marginal energy cost.
Each bottle within the NFT is also minted as an NFT, allowing for drinking or trading of single bottles at any time. Strauss & Co will coordinate the NFT through to maturity, making sure each vintage is added, as well as ‘burning’ NFTs when stock is withdrawn. This likely constitutes the first fine South African wines to be transacted on the blockchain.
Web3 development partner, Fanfire, have partnered with Strauss & Co to curate and transact the fine wine NFTs. Fanfire director, Gert-Jan van Rooyen is Associate Professor Extraordinary for the Internet of things at Stellenbosch University, and took overall responsibility for the security, payment and technical parameters of the NFT and blockchain transaction.
Once auctioned, the NFTs can be traded by the owner on any platform, radically increasing its liquidity and target market across the world. The NFTs include perfect cellaring of the wines until maturity, while the contracts are held in a custodial wallet or sent to a cold wallet such as the Venox Vault (https://venox.io/).
Many of the wines within the NFT are extremely rare. Only a handful of the 1980 Rubicon and 1986 Vin de Constance are owned by the estates and complete verticals likely don’t exist outside the estates. Maiden vintages of Vilafonté Series C are impossible to find, Mullineux Olerasay is produced in miniscule quantities and icon vintages of Kanonkop Paul Sauer 2009 and 2003 are now also very rare.
While South Africa has produced wines for over 350 years, the historic wine estates such as Meerlust, Klein Constantia and Kanonkop have only been producing bottled wines for four to five decades. These three historic producers have reached a new level of quality within the last decade however, while new producers such as Vilafonté and Mullineux Family have driven this fine wine boom.
As well as offering the world’s greatest wines, Strauss & Co have assisted in developing the secondary market for vintage South African wines. Providing collectors and investors the platform, the top SA wines have shown high appreciation on the secondary market. A single bottle of 1821 Grand Constance sold for R967,300 (c. £50,000) in 2021 while nineteen jeroboams across 3 decades of Kanonkop Paul Sauer (1986-2006) sold for R546,240 (c. £28,400) in 2020.
More recent vintages such as Vilafonté Series C 2009 average R4,805 (c. £250) per bottle on Strauss & Co, which is a 25% annualised price growth over the last decade. Meerlust Rubicon 2009 has on average grown 17% per year, while the Neal Martin 100-point Mullineux Olerasay No 2 has sold at a premium of 227% since the 2020 release.
What about the charity component?
NFTs make the payment to charities very simple, with the ability to write payment rules into the NFT contract on the first sale and post trades. A percentage of the NFT proceeds will be paid to Sp(i)eel, along with other charities. Sp(i)eel is a ground-breaking NPO that uses arts in wineland communities to address inequality and intergenerational trauma and to assist in the development of psychosocial well-being.
How are the reserve prices set?
Each NFT contains a different range of past and future wines, varying quantities and bottle sizes, all further adding to the non-fungible nature of the collections. Reserve prices of each NFT are based on historical Strauss sales, with future vintages set at current prices.
How do I bid?
Strauss & Co holds regular virtual live and online auctions on their industry-leading platform. The five lot NFT sale will take place online from 18-25 April on Straussart.co.za. Bidders can make payment in ZAR as well Bitcoin and Ethereum. There is a standard KYC process for fiat and cryptocurrency purchases.
BID ON THE AUCTION
Viewing of lots opens 11-18 April, with bids open from 18 – 25 April
View lots & bid online: https://www.straussart.co.za
What the Producers have to say:
Klein Constantia, Vice Chairman and Shareholder Hans Astrom
“We’re excited about this auction. It’s the first time in modern times , we ever put a complete lot of Vin De Constance up for sale with the 40 vintages spanning over 5 decades. The wines have all been cellared at Klein Constantia, which guarantees provenance and authenticity. It is truly a unique and rare opportunity to acquire one of the world’s most collectible wines.
The wine’s provenance is from our cellars and stocks and have never been outside. The older vintages will be verified before being shipped and in case of re-corking needed, we will make sure that every bottle shipped is at 100% and just as it was when released.
This auction is a great opportunity for interested wine amateurs or collectors from all around the world to acquire some of South Africa’s great and rare wines that normally are not seen in the market. Fine wines are appreciated all around the world and the best of South African wines deserve to be on this platform as well.”
Kanonkop, Sales and Marketing Deidre Taylor
“On auction will be Kanonkop Paul Sauer – a collection of each vintage produced of this century. A retrospective and future vertical of every vintage from 2000 through to 2025.
The Strauss & Co fine wine NFT auction provides an opportunity to be part of a first for South Africa. This auction increases the reach of consumers able to access the fine wines from South Africa, which is often only accessible to local buyers.”
Vilafonté, Co-founder and Managing Partner Mike Ratcliffe
“As we celebrate our 25th anniversary, it is appropriate to offer the only 25 year vertical collection of Vilafonté Series C ever assembled. It is exciting and humbling and will never be repeated. This quarter century time capsule of Vilafonté Series C is truly an extraordinary and timeless NFT.
Series C has never left the winery, has never been exposed to sunlight and has been perfectly matured. Future vintages will get similar love and care. Provenance and quality is assured. By playing a part in this first of its kind NFT auction, we are very pleased to be making a modest contribution towards the ongoing evolution of the South African fine wine scene.”
Meerlust, Cellar Master Wim Truter
“The Meerlust lot on auction at the Strauss & Co NFT fine wine auction covers 50 vintages of Rubicon from the very first release in 1980 to the 2034 which will only be released in 2037. It therefore covers historic vintages plus future vintages not yet released. A rare, complete collection of Rubicon vintages.
All the wines have been catalogued by their seal code numbers and photographed by Strauss & Co Fine Wine. This information is also captured on the NFT. The wines will be stored at Meerlust in our vinoteque under climate control conditions until the new owner decides otherwise.
Every bottle has been stored under ideal conditions on the Meerlust Estate, including visually inspected for the integrity of the closure and ullage. This will be the first NFT auction of South African fine wine and we are sure that this will set a new standard for the way in which auctions of rare South African wines will happen in the future.”