Tasting Notes
A blend of Grenache blanc, Verdelho, Grenache Gris and other bits and pieces, all sourced from the Voor-Paardeberg in the Swartland. As Pieter said: "like with most great things in life - this wine originated with a really bad experience where the liquor board stopped with sales of the 2011 vintage." We couldn't be happier about it, as it's a jolly smart little wine, and it ages extremely well, likely to become nutty and mellow with time in bottle. It's complex and slowly unfurls - tangerine, lemon butter, some aniseed and quite savoury too, with a fuller, slightly tropical palate, dried mango, finishing very long and spiced. The label was drawn by Pieter's son Luca, who at the time was just 5. Now there's some talent!
More Info
The tale behind the name BLANKbottle is that when Pieter was starting out, he made a small parcel of Shiraz and was left with a few unlabelled cases. One day, a woman wanted to buy a wine – “Anything but Shiraz,” she told him. Pieter shrugged and sold her the unlabelled Shiraz, neglecting to mention the variety. A few weeks later she returned demanding more, saying it was the best thing she’d ever drunk. For Pieter, it was a lesson on the gap between what people think they like (or dislike) and what they actually like (or dislike). After that, he decided not to list the varieties on his labels. Every one of Pieter’s wines is a story, rather than a grape variety, and it’s the juice inside the bottle which reveals that story. He doesn’t own any vines, but instead scours South Africa’s winelands for top-quality fruit that has somehow slipped under the radar, now sourcing from nearly 70 sites. Some years he’ll make 20 wines, other years 35. With the benefit of anonymity, variety and regional identity take a back seat while parcel expression does the driving. These are some of South Africa’s most original wines, made by one of South Africa’s most original winemakers.