Terms & Conditions

This site is operated by The Platonist Wine Company (Pty) Ltd, Western Cape, South Africa. By using the site, opening an account or requesting an allocation or a seat, you accept these terms. If you are using the site for a business (a restaurant, retailer or importer), you confirm you are authorised to bind that business.

This site offers alcohol. You must be of legal drinking age in your country of residence, 18 or older in South Africa, to use it, to hold an account and to receive wine. We refuse, cancel or unwind any transaction where this proves untrue. Alcohol is not for sale to persons under the age of 18.

Membership and trade accounts cost nothing and are granted at the house’s discretion; applications may be declined without reasons given. Accounts are personal (or particular to the named business), non-transferable, and may be closed by either side at any time. Keep your password to yourself; what happens under your account is your doing until you tell us otherwise.

The house sells by allocation. The mechanics, plainly:

• An allocation request is an offer to buy, not an order. No contract exists until we confirm your request and issue an invoice.
• Prices shown are in South African Rand and are indicative until confirmation; the price on your invoice is the price that binds, and it will match the tier shown to you at the time of your request. Prices may exclude delivery, which is quoted separately.
• There is no online payment. We invoice on confirmation; payment terms appear on the invoice. Wine is dispatched or released after payment, unless we agree otherwise in writing.
• Quantities are limited per member or account and per release. We may scale requests down when a wine is oversubscribed; the allocation model exists precisely for this.
• You owe us nothing until you confirm an allocation; membership carries no purchase obligation.

Within South Africa we arrange delivery to the address on your invoice; risk passes on delivery. Outside South Africa, wine is supplied ex-cellar or through an appointed importer for your market, as stated on the invoice. Import duties, taxes and local compliance in your country are your affair or your importer’s. We pack as if the bottles were our own; report breakage within 48 hours of receipt and we will make it right.

Symposium seats are allocated by invitation at the house’s discretion; a seat request is not a booking. Where a seat carries a price, it will be stated before you confirm. Seats are personal and non-transferable without our agreement. We may reschedule or cancel a table for good cause (force majeure, or a cellar emergency, which is the same thing) and will offer the next table or a refund of any amount paid.

Alcohol reduces driving ability; don’t drink and drive. Enjoy our wines deliberately and in moderation; that is, after all, the entire philosophy of the house.

The names, labels, artwork, photography, film and words on this site belong to the house or its licensors. Enjoy them here; do not reproduce them commercially without our written consent. Press and trade may request assets at info@platonist.wine.

Do not misuse the site: no unlawful access, no scraping of member or pricing data, no false applications, no interference with its operation. We may suspend or close accounts involved in any of the above.

Nothing here limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including under the South African Consumer Protection Act where it applies to you. Otherwise, our liability in connection with the site or any allocation is limited to the amount you paid for the wine concerned, and we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss. The site is provided as it stands; we do not promise it will be uninterrupted.

These terms are governed by the law of the Republic of South Africa, and the courts of the Western Cape have jurisdiction, without depriving EU consumers of protections their local law grants them. We may revise these terms; material changes will be announced to account holders, and the date below always tells you the current version. If one clause fails, the rest stand.