‘The resurrection of one of the first BLANKBOTTLE wines – in its original uniform.’ Pieter Walser, Winemaker and Owner

The ISA-42 is going back to Pieter’s roots. Merlot is what he concentrated on in his early days and then he gave up as he didn’t like the result, too thin and weedy. For the 2020 vintage he received a call from a farmer who offered him a tonne of Merlot from a vineyard of deep composed granite soil high up on the Helderberg. Pieter knew this would produce a Merlot he liked so he graciously accepted the offer.

This is now the 3rd vintage and Pieter loves it. He has used the old labels from when his bottles were left mostly blank and he created the labels on Microsoft Word. This spends 18 months in 40% new oak and 60% old oak. It’s deep, pure and multi-layered with a beautiful richness.

#Tasting#

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 shed 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 Pieters wines is a story, rather than a grape variety, and its the juice inside the bottle which reveals that story.