Nedbank Winemakers Guild (Working as Beluga)

EVENTS

Towards the end of August, we put our Beluga hats on for the event of the year: Nedbank Winemakers. Our 4th year doing this dinner and auction, we were excited for the challenge of pulling off something amazing once more – with good wine, happy people, and some incredible items up for auction.

The Concept

Every year Nedbank hosts the Cape Winemakers Guild event in Johannesburg as a way of supporting new the Winemakers Guild’s Protégé Program. The event is a mixture of wine tasting, gourmet dinner, and finally, taking part in an always-exciting auction to wrap up the evenings’ festivities. The goal of the auction is to assist in raising funds to further grow and support the Protégé Program mentioned above. This year, the concept for the event centred around an inner city market, which we brought to life with a setup reminiscent of a true city market setup, with an extra touch of class (and good wine!)

Setup

Nedbank hosts 350 guests at this event each year, meaning an elaborate setup is required to make sure everyone is comfortable and having the best possible time on the day. We brought our inner city market idea to life with some rustic touches such as cement décor elements, freshly cut flowers, and an array of fresh fruit and veg displayed in our outdoor area. The setup took a full 2 days to complete, making sure every little detail was perfectly in place, just the way we wanted it.

The Event

We wanted to ensure that guests were surprised and delighted right from the second they step foot through the door, so we set up a swing installation at the entrance, where they could have fun and take some photos to remember the evening by. From there, guests were welcomed and provided with their wine glass for the evening – theirs to take with them on the rounds as they tasted different wines from the 37 winemakers that were in attendance – before being assigned their seat, using our bespoke, custom built seating chart – specially developed just for this event.

Guests then made their way through to our outdoor market and winemakers area, where they got to taste some mouth-watering snacks, including raclette and chef-attended smoked salmon slicing, while pairing them with an array of fantastic wines set out and recommended by the winemakers themselves. After some time spent mingling outside, it was time to head indoors so that dinner could be served.

Dinner consisted of a hearty family style meal, which included meat, sides, and the most divine baby salad, which set the perfect scene for our auction warm-up and then the auction itself. This year’s auction was MC-ed by Katlego Maboe and our auctioneer, Gift Ngwenya. Incredibly, this was the highest grossing auction for the Nedbank Protégé Auction to date, and we couldn’t be happier with how many people came out in full force to support the Protégé Program!

Overall, the night was an incredible success, with many guests commenting on how much fun they’d had, how good the food and wine was, and how they couldn’t wait for next year’s event! We are looking forward to taking the auction to the next level for many years to come.

Here are some more of our favourite photos from the night:

Suppliers

Venue - The Galleria
Catering - Delmont Caldow
Audio Visual - Pristine moods productions /Mstarr
Entertainment - The Rocketeers
Furniture - Inspire Furniture Rentals
Photography - Rich Photography
Medic - The Public Safety Co
Décor - Loud, Ninirichi, Aiai Décor, Unlimted Events
Transport - StanRam Transport and Uber