Dave Hughes is South Africa’s most experienced wine tasters and one of the many points he made at the pre-action tasting of Nederburg Auction wines earlier this month was how badly served the UK wine drinking public are by the cosy cabal of supermarket wine buyers currently in situ. “Wine educators are a much better bet,” commented Dave, than a mob of MWs, one of whom was recently dropped from Interpol’s wanted list, according to Decanter.

After the amazingly smooth running of the FIFA soccer World Cup, perhaps more UK buyers will make the trip south. The Nederburg Auction would be a good place to start. My thoughts on the pre-auction tasting in yesterday’s Sunday Times.

Whoever selected the 48 wines on the Nederburg Auction public tastings earlier this month, was uncannily prescient. The first wine up was the creamy yet boney Pongrácz Desiderius 2001 Méthode Cap Classique named after the Hungarian nobleman of the same name who spent ten years in one of Stalin’s Gulags after choosing the wrong side in the Second World War and being captured by the Red Army. Deported to Hungary, he fled to SA during the revolution of 1956. The bubbly was most appropriate given that his fellow countryman and towering figure in SA wine, Julius Laszlo, passed away a couple of days before.

Before coming to SA, Laszlo was head of the wine institute of Romania, or Rumania as the Distell website prefers to spell it. Before firing off an “outraged pedant on the Paardeberg” e-mail to Distell’s new wine supremo, Carina Gous, I thought I’d check my facts and was surprised to see both spellings are acceptable. In fact it is only in the last few decades that the “o”-form has become more popular as the South-Eastern Europeans living north of the Danube seek to underline their links to Rome and its once mighty empire.

Neighbours including Bulgaria, Serbia, Russia, Poland, Spain and Germany are all “u” while France sits firmly on the fence with Roumanie. Only Portugal and the Romanian government are non-u. But does it even matter?

Most definitely, as Nederburg cellar master, Romanian-born Razvan Macici, is rewriting the cellar book for SA wine. 2001 saw his first vintages emerge and you can taste the difference. This year’s auction on September 3 and 4 includes at least two of his wines worth seeking out.

The Nederburg Private Bin D215 Sauvignon Blanc 2007 has a refreshingly minty nose that will have you reaching for more roast lamb. One of the silliest myths in SA wine is that Sauvignon should be drunk in the year of its vintage, but give it a bit of bottle age and the wine is transformed from a fresh summer thirst quencher to a serious, multidimensional stunner. 130 dozen available so there should be enough for all, unlike the equally impressive De Grendel Koetshuis Sauvignon Blanc 2007 of which just 10 six-packs are offered. But then the wine is so good – Charles Hopkins’ finest achievement – there is probably not much left.

Although the Auction is restricted to bottle store owners, hoteliers and restaurateurs, Patrice public can join in by getting immediate membership of Distell’s Bergkelder Vinoteque Wine Bank (phone 021 809 8285 for details) and placing a bid.

Lots ticked on my catalogue include Macici’s masterful Nederburg Edelkeur 2005, an intense apricot fool you’d be a fool to ignore. The Tukulu Pinotage 1999 supplies a blast of West Coast ozone and minerality and is a perfect match for a Chicago Cut or Karoo lamb chops. Confirming that good winemaking can often trump a weak vintage was the 1999 Cabernet Sauvignon from Remhoogte with a miraculous 12% alcohol and a perfumed minerality straight out of Pauillac. The 20 six-packs of Saxenburg SSS Shiraz 2001 have a reserve of R900 a case – about what you should be paying for a single bottle, given this quality.