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Cederberg Wines Bukettraube, South Africa, 2025 $19.99/bottle – $215.89/case

Wines of the Month – June 2026

We push the envelope this month with a wine that neither you nor we have ever heard of. It probably won’t sell well because it’s at the highest price ever for our Wine of the Month program, it’s white, and it’s slightly sweet. BUT IT’S DELICIOUS! If we can tempt you to try it, you’ll see that it justifies the price and is unique, delightful, and incredibly versatile, the perfect match for sushi, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indian, and even Mexican food. Not so easy to find.

Bukettraube is a hybrid grape from Germany (1864), a cross of white Sylvaner with red Blauer Trollinger (aka Schiava Grossa). Its wines are highly aromatic and Muscat-like, but the vines are very susceptible to the fungus downy mildew and are not widely planted, with patches in Germany, Alsace, Spain, Zimbabwe, and most notably, South Africa. Even there, plantings have dwindled to only 91 acres, 34 of which are at Cederberg. So what does it taste like? Think peach, apricot, pear, a touch of sweetness, and beautifully balancing acidity. Think you don’t like off-dry wines? Try this with the above-mentioned food; you’ll be a convert.

Cederberg Wines is part of a large farm within the high-elevation Cederberg Wilderness Area, 90 minutes north of Cape Town. Of the farm’s 13,600 acres, only 184 are under vine. The first Nieuwoudts arrived in South Africa in the early 1700s. Descendants moved to the Cederberg area around 1800. In 1893, the present family moved to Farm Dwarsrivier, a fruit, tobacco, vegetable, and livestock farm. In 1964, a friend who worked for the Deciduous Fruit Board noticed that winter fruit was doing really well and recommended planting table grapevines. The vines did so well that wine vines were planted in 1973. Today, this award-winning winery is owned by 5th generation David Nieuwoudt. Daughter Emma represents the sixth generation.

Cederberg’s Bukettraube vines average 20 years of age and face south-west on Glenrosa and sandstone soil. High-altitude, dry conditions are perfect for the downy mildew-susceptible varietal. The grapes are hand-harvested in the cool early morning at 22.5–25 brix. Winemaking is done in reductive conditions, using dry ice and carbon dioxide gas. The grapes are crushed, then given eight hours of skin contact, lightly pressed, given two days of juice settling, and racked. Fermentation with commercial yeast at 57° F is stopped after four to five days, leaving a natural sugar of 24 grams/liter. High acidity (7.7 g/l, pH 3.19) makes it “taste” more like 12-15 g/l.