blog & media

All the very best for the New Year! Please see below my let's-consider-the-weird-stuff newsletter. If you do not feel like reading, you have the option to view it as a YouTube video. I recorded it myself (whilst driving...), don’t worry - I had my safety belt on.

Something has been nagging at my mind for the last couple of years. Why do certain barrels from the same batch of wine perform so much better than others, when it receives nothing more than additional attention?

I’ve seen it happen many times, like the 2011 Moment of Silence vintage for instance. Some of the barrels struggled with fermentation - something we couldn't do much about at the time. So we just " faff-ed"; we discussed it, tasted it, re-tasted it, dreamed about it and discussed it some more – in short: we spent way more time with those barrels than any of the others. The result: significantly superior quality wine.

The other day a friend of mine mentioned that he’d seen the same effect where he grows fruit. Whenever they identify a so-called problem orchard with low production or quality, they would start the process of removing such an orchard. It normally takes a year of expert analysis, meeting upon meetings, discussion upon discussions; ultimately resulting in everyone spending much more time with the trees, talking to and about them. The next year that specific orchard would then, without fail, perform considerably better than the previous year. They’ve seen this so many times that they now consider it a strategy – and note that they don’t do anything different to the orchard than just spend more time with it!

A well-known saying in farming circles is that the farmer's footprints are the best fertilizer for crops. But are there more to this, besides the increase of the physical observation opportunities?

So this brings me to the question that I’ve been struggling with for many years: is there even the slightest possibility that a vineyard can “hear” you? Or feel your presence? This is a topic I know nothing about besides my practical observations. Is this a fact that I should consider in my approach to my vineyards? So if you have any experience in this, or have a story to share – bring it on! What if we could quantify this in a way? Let’s explore this together in the year to come. In the mean time I'll spend every spare moment talking to the 2012 vintage (just in case they are, as I suspect, indeed listening). See a photo of my most recent speaking-to-the-plants trip to Elgin.

"BLACK 2010" - R165 a bottle. This wine is a red blend of Swartland Syrah, Mourvedre & Grenache - a joint venture between myself and a friend, Albert Ahrens.

Personally, I think that the future for South African wine lies in elegance. I always rate the first empty bottle at a dinner table as the best wine of the night. Our goal with BLACK 2010 therefore was to create a wine which represents Swartland terroir; something super complex, layered and funky - but at the same time ultra elegant. Think princess Diana on a spring-day morning in the gardens of Buckingham palace.

The project has gained momentum with our first vintage sold out in 6 months. We are now sourcing grapes from 6 different vineyards. 4 of these are Syrah, each one growing on a specific soil type. Each soil type produce grapes and ultimately wine with certain characteristics. From the decomposed granitic soils found in the quaint valleys of the Northern Paardeberg as well as the decomposed granite soil with shale and quartz to the east, we make voluptuous wines; not super structured, but with curves in all the right places. From the slate soils in Riebeeck however, we get wine with immense structure. And finally, to polish this all off, we have small parcels of Grenache and Mourvedre, also from the Paardeberg, adding red fruit and velvet tannins - fresh and exciting. We therefore build dimension, depth and complexity into this wine by making use of the vineyards, not winemaking techniques.

We de-stem by hand, crush the grapes with our feet and ferment wild (no added yeast) in open top fermenters. The wine is then pressed and aged in small French oak barrels for 12 months, then blended and aged in big French oak barrels for another 6 months. Bottling took place in June 2011.

Decant this wine 30 minutes before drinking and enjoy the ultimate balance between complexity and drinkability. Trust me you will finish a bottle in no time... - elegance personified!

This wine is again exclusive to the BLANKbottle community. E-mail me with your order, make up mixed cases (see below for a list of the other wines now selling) or go to www.blankbottle.co.za to buy online.

PLEASE NOTE that I prefer not to take any orders in between 16 Dec - 1st Jan due to unreliable deliveries. I want to make sure I get the wine to you before my courier settles into the holiday mood thing... If you therefore need wine for the holiday season, PLEASE ORDER NOW.

Last, but definitely not least, I had an awesome year (SOLD OUT on the BIG Spaniard, The MISFIT, BATAVIA, Midnight Call, Moment of Silence and Cinsaut) and would like to, as far as possible, thank you personally for your support before yearend. You can therefore expect a call from me.

That's it for now.

At tastings I often get the question: "How do you conceptualize new wines?" Although normally a firm believer in strategic planning, I plan NOT to plan when it comes to new wines. You can never force a wine; you just need to follow the road you're on. The journey normally starts with a friend, which typically leads to another friend, new areas and vineyards. Ultimately I end up with wines that express the journey more than the actual destination, a combination of these people and their habitat.

The perfect example of such a wine is the Moment of Silence. It's been a journey of epic proportion from the first vintage in 2007 until today - the release of the 2010 vintage. It all started off with a friend, Jan de Villiers, who took me to Wellington. To be honest, I wasn't too keen on the area at first but by lunchtime that day I had completely changed my view. At the time I was not aware of it, but I was sitting at the original Hauptfleisch family table (more than 200 years old) and about to buy Chardonnay from a farm called Twyfeling (originally also owned by the Hauptfleisch family, 230 years ago). What makes this so significant is that my second name is Hauptfleisch, hence the H. in Pieter H. Walser. It refers to my mom's maiden surname. And the Hauptfleisch family who owned Twyfeling turned out to be my direct family, 7 generations ago... I only discovered this 2 years after that first day in Welllington - quite a confirmation don't you think?

Since 2007, the Moment of Silence has evolved into an area-specific white blend. The Chardonnay in the blend is still from Twyfeling and the Chenin is from Professor Kukurowitz - a block named after the professor who field-selected, multiplied and planted the vineyard 48 years ago. The third component, Viognier, is from a small block on the foothills of Groenberg. All these varietals fermented separately in OLD French oak barrels. It was aged a year in barrel on the lees, blended and bottled. It's NOT your typical wooded wine. You can hardly taste the wood. The wine is fresh! It represents and expresses the vineyards of Wellington, NOT the barrels from France... This year I took the packaging a bit further and waxed all the bottles (putting natural wax on the neck of the bottle instead of a plastic capsule) and also wrapped it in tissue paper. It looks almost as cool as the wine inside the bottle.

And the quality? A well known German sushi and celebrity chef in Hamburg has just bought a whole batch of the 2010 vintage to stock his Sushi restaurant and/or (hopefully) feature on his TV show! Lekkerrrrrr.

This has definitely been the most challenging newsletter to write ever. In the past I've explained the production cost of wine in general. But the question I left unanswered: Are you being ripped off by paying, let's say, R350 for a bottle of fine wine? (And NO, I am not going to release a super expensive wine at the end of this mail. This is purely educational. I am providing you with free information with the aim of enriching your wine life). Not only is it a very controversial subject, but also requires a (complicated) comparison, which in turn requires immense generalization, which is dangerous, if not impossible to do in wine! So please bear with me, try and focus on the principles and don't allow yourself to get lost in the details.

Lets take two real life scenarios as our comparison. Farmer 1 is this friend of mine who farms mechanically (making use of machines to prune and harvest) in a fertile environment. He therefore has a relatively high production, averaging on 35 tons per hectare for Sauvignon blanc and gets R2 600 a ton at his local winery (producing mid to low price point wines). My friend therefore gets R91 000 per hectare. According to SAWIS the running costs of a vineyard in his area is R27 000 (manual labour and provision for renewal of vineyards included). The manual labour bill is R6700. He however farms mechanically with only one person on 20 hectares. A small labour bill, but he then needs a machine. So let's keep the running cost per hectare at R27 000. He therefore makes a minimum of R64 000 profit per hectare on average for all his Sauvignon Blanc…. hectares of it!! The winery buys for a good price and has the ability to make wine and sell, their margin included.

Farmer 2 is my other friend who farms in Stellenbosch. His goal is to make the best wine he possibly can. To ensure consistent superior quality, everything is done on a manual basis. According to SAWIS, production costs on a Stellenbosch estate are R33 000 per hectare on average. Let’s use a block of Cabernet Sauvignon he nurtures as our example. Due to extra quality enhancing practices to this specific block, inset costs rise with R5 000 per hectare to R38 000 and the yield decreases to 6 tons per hectare. Now if Farmer 2 wants to make the same money as Farmer 1, he needs to charge R17 000 per ton. On R6 333 a ton he breaks even, but who wants to only break even, especially with all the extra effort in the vineyard? The older the vineyard, the better the quality of the grapes but the lower the yield. The farmer will therefore need to charge more and more as the production per hectare decreases and the quality increases with the ageing of the vine. But let’s ignore this for now. The other factor is that Farmer 2 only has one hectare of this spectacular block, whilst Farmer 1 has many hectares of Sauvignon blanc. Yet again, let’s ignore this for now.

Farmer 2 in Stellenbosch gets 600 liters of wine from each ton of grapes. It costs R3500 per ton to process the grapes. To ensure the best possible end result (which is his goal), this wine will then go into the best barrels he can lay his hands on which he will be using for 3 vintages. R12 000 a barrel over 3 vintages. He gets 300 bottles from one barrel and the wine will age, let’s say, 2 years in barrel. Storage per liter per month will add up to R7.20 a liter. You then have a special product and special products need to be packaged extremely well. By looking at the outside of the bottle, the consumer needs to get a glimpse of what’s inside the bottle. So his next cost factor is packaging.

Label designing fees could be anything from R15 000 to R80 000 for one label (believe it or not!) As this is a once-off fee, let’s again ignore this for the time being. Special printing in small volumes is very expensive. See below for estimate cost. He then needs to make use of a special bottle. He needs to buy excellent corks. Capsules need to be printed and the material needs to be either tin or Poly-laminated. Anyhow, these could be really expensive depending on what you want/printed or not... Box? My one friend just paid R125 for a 6-bottle box... but I agree, that's a bit crazy! Now we add tax and Farmer 2 is on R82.90 a bottle (see costing table below). Another friend of mine spends R100 a bottle only on production costs for his top wine. But these inset costs are relatively easy to quantify. It's the following factors that people tend to forget.

Farmer 2 now needs to allocate wine for samples. You see, everyone who buys would like to taste... and then he needs to add the marketing budget, travel and administration overheads.

After bottling, the wine needs to lie in bottle for another 6 months to settle and he is now ready to launch. Let’s say the wine will then take a year to sell. We now have to add the cost of capital invested for the production of the grapes (1 year), making of the wine (2 years), ageing of the bottled product (6 months) and the time to sell the vintage (1 year)… total of 4.5 years.

Now let's assume that year one was a massive success and he ends up with an awesome product (almost never the case - it takes years to develop a wine like this). The problem that he now faces is that only a small percentage of his market has the experienced and developed palate to be able to really taste, determine, appreciate and quantify the quality difference between his and other wines. So suddenly his market shrinks significantly. He therefore cannot produce many bottles. This now influences his cost of production as well as the number of chances (bottles) he has to generate profit. The immediate effect of this is much higher margins per bottle. Very difficult to quantify. The main markets for wines like these are possibly boutique wine shops, but mainly restaurants. They would then add between 100 - 350% as their margin. I am not sure where we are at with pricing at this stage but that is not the point.

Lastly, but in my opinion one of the things most often overlooked: We all want South Africa to be the best in, let’s say rugby, so let’s assume, in the same way as with the rugby, we as a nation also want South African wines to compete with the best in the world. The intellectual capital that it takes to produce wines that could compete with the best in the world is enormous. It demands super intellectual, highly gifted individuals who are willing to sacrifice anything in order to reach their goals. Now how do you compensate people like these? I sometimes listen to what the top 10 actuaries earn in SA, the top 10 accountants, politicians etc.. Now pay these viticulturists and winemakers the equivalent of their intellectual capacity and creativity and (I feel) R600 a bottle is a bargain...

PS: All the facts stated above are NOT the opinion of the wine industry but MY opinion, researched and paid for by MYSELF.

Warm regards

Pieter

Breakdown of estimate production costs:

The Ghaap newspaper reporting on the BLANKbottle and Old Mutual roadshow.

Click here to view the article

For many years I’ve been presenting tastings to private clients. It’s always been core to my business - getting face-time with people who love wine. I am not exactly sure what happened in the last few months, but the tastings took on new momentum. I subsequently decided to formalize the planning of trips. I am setting aside one week in a month where I’ll commit to travelling and presenting tastings. The past 2 months have been Joburg’s turn and this month I am off to Bloemfontein and Kimberly. A new city that I am excited about is Durban. I'm temporarily booked for a week trip there in October, but still have plenty open nights (17 to 21 October 2011). You see, I can surf in the day and present tastings at night - not possible in Joburg! But don’t worry Joburg. I still love your city and will be there 26-29 October. I also have a few open nights there.

This is where I need your help. Please let me know if you would like to host an event like this. You will need to invite people/friends/colleagues/clients/friends of friends, in short, people who love wine and want to have some fun, open up your house (or find an alternative venue) and I will be the entertainment. I’ll bring the wine and glasses, present a tasting on the  BLANKbottle wines now selling. We could taste anything between 7 and 10 different wines on the night. I have my own style when presenting these tastings. You see, BLANKbottle is a mere bottle imitation of myself and my life up to now. I’ll tell you everything, yes, everything! My life before and my journey within wine. The lows and the highs with the wine as your tour guide. If you understand where I come from, you"ll understand BLANKbottle.

Most nights start out quite respectably with everyone on best behaviour, but it normally ends in a radical, chaotic fashion. Some nights even start chaotic, like the other evening in Bryanston, and later completely goes off the rails. It’s about having fun, being honest and learning about wine and making it a part of your life - simply enjoying it without the pressure.

See again below the 2 weeks planned:

17 October 2011 – DURBAN – Still open

18 October 2011 – DURBAN – Still open

19 October 2011 – DURBAN – Still open

20 October 2011 – DURBAN – Still open

21 October 2011 – DURBAN - BOOKED FOR TASTING in Umhlanga

26 October 2011 – JOBURG – Still open

27 October 2011 – JOBURG – BOOKED FOR TASTING in Westcliff

28 October 2011 – JOBURG – Still open

29 October 2011 – JOBURG – Still open

30 October 2011 – JOBURG - Still open

To book a night e-mail me: pieter@blankbottle.co.za - If these nights don’t work for you please book a date in advance that could and we can plan things from there.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Goodness, what interesting feedback on what you'd like to see coming from the BLANKbottle stables!  But first things first: Please go out and buy the latest issue of VISI magazine, the one with the blue cover. They selected BLANKbottle as one of their “Blue sky thinkers” and I think it’s probably the best summary ever of what BLANKbottle stands for.

On the search for great Riesling...

Thanks to all of you who responded to my previous e-mail and gave me your valuable input. Many of you wrote long information-loaded e-mails about styles of wines you like, varietals etc. I worked through them all and compiled a brief report.

In the red category I was astonished by what people want to drink. Tied in FIRST POSITION: The ever-so-popular, robust Cabernet Sauvignon and (can you believe it!) our own indigenous crossing between Hermitage and Pinot noir: Pinotage. Having so many styles of Pinotage around, I dug a bit deeper. Again I was astonished to find out that you prefer Pinotage in blends. Some even went further and specified areas: Stellenbosch and Paarl (a bit more traditional). Personally, I prefer cooler climate Pinotage (tasted some great ones from Sebastian Beaumont in Botrivier the other day). But for the Cabs I’ll stick with Jonkershoek. A Cape blend could be the way to go here. Seeing that the BATAVIA is now almost sold out it is a category to keep your eyes on.... In SECOND PLACE in the Red category it was Rhône red blends. That’s now Shiraz and bits of Mourvèdre, Carignan, Grenache, Cinsaut or bits of them all. With BLACK, The NEWBLACK, The New MISFIT and The Spaniard, I think I’ve got this one covered for now, obviously backed up by areas like the Swartland and Wellington. In THIRD PLACE we have Malbec. I drank some great Argentinean ones but it is still a difficult one for me to get my head around. Tends to be a bit wild for my liking, but I think I just haven’t found the right ones. I tasted some OK cooler climate ones last week but you'll need to give me time on this one. Pinot noir came in at NUMBER FOUR and, to be honest, I don’t yet have the guts to try this one! Although I did make a wine this year that could fill this gap from a stylistic point of view  - we'll call it a “Southern Hemisphere Pinot noir” for the time being - watch this space... Joint NO 5 are Petit Verdot, Carménère, Tempranillo and Cabernet franc. NUMBER 6: Merlot (seems to be not so popular anymore) and NUMBER 7: Grenache and Barbera.

Searching through areas/varietals

The WHITE WINNER is not Sauvignon blanc (came in second place) as I would have thought it to be and not even Chenin blanc (no 5, probably because I've got this covered), but rather much to my liking, Riesling! An extremely difficult varietal to grow, make and sell. I think I might have the right vineyard for a project like this. I've already started with negotiations, so let’s see where it leads. Sharing the THIRD POSITION we have Gewürztraminer and Chardonnay, with Sémillon close on its heels. And then we have weirder varieties at the bottom end of the list - interesting stuff like Hárslevelű, Grüner Veltliner, some straight Viogniers and White Rhone blends with lots of Grenache blanc (again, got this covered)... I personally like all these whites. One day I would like to have a blend of all of them. A 7 varietal one...mmm...

Conclusion: If and when you find a great vineyard in its perfect terroir, you are almost guaranteed an excellent wine from it, no matter the style, varietal etc. And there will always be a market for excellent wine. Although wine needs to sell, it is ultimately driven by these vineyards and not people’s opinions. Does this mean I am not going to listen to your input? Yes and no. I desperately needed to know if I am still on the right track! I see your input as the ultimate confirmation. Thanks to you all for the valuable input; just walking the path, not constructing it...

And before I forget: the winner of a case of Carignan 2009, BLANKbottle The MISFIT (a new wine I am about to release - e-mail me if you'd like a pre-release buy) goes to Coenraad van Tonder with his 2007 Reserve Series Brae Blanc-VQA, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Chardonnay suggestion. I haven’t tasted this but it sounds sumptuous.

Seeing that Tuesday was Woman’s Day, myself and the family headed off to Still Bay a week early for some quality family time. For myself it was going to be a big weekend. But not because of the contest. And let me put it straight - as the defending Juniors Champion and this year’s not-even-close-to-the-finals contestant, I personally think I am entitled to say this : The Vintners Surf Classic is not a contest! Dragonstone Wines put it even more accurately: “if this contest is about the competition for you, you’re a sad case”. It’s about nature, food, beer, wine, friendships - all glued together by the sport of surfing. For me it was a BIG weekend because it marked, yet again (for the second time in 4 years), my return to surfing. The combination of a 2 week stint of strength-sucking glandular fever and carrying a bunch of 18kg grape-filled lug boxes,  landed me a Brachial Plexus injury. In layman’s terms: Thoracic outlet syndrome. Bottom line:  All the muscles around my right shoulder blade shut down. There was nothing left to support my scapula, so whenever I used my right arm my scapula popped out of its socket. In the 4 months following the initial injury, I could basically not use my arm at all. It was then that fellow surfer and biokinetist Philip Nel from Bokkie Blaauw and partners in Somerset West took me in. Subsequently, last weekend, after 2 months of training (and 6 months without surfing) I had the go-ahead from the expert to go for my first (gentle) surf .

Friday morning, a brisk offshore greeted us at Sandstrand, Jongensfontein. Even though the tide was still low you could clearly see that we were about to witness an incredible day in nature. Great call made early morning by Tamboerskloof and Tokara. The event is hugely supported by sponsors (Rip Curl, Reynolds Rocha, Sports Unlimited, Nixon, ZigZag, Ecostake, Vitamin Water, Thales, Taquanta, Tonnelerie Bordelaise, Rotolabel, Consol & Cool and Dandy). This means a goodie bag, a bottle of The BIG red (a blend made up of wine from each contestant), food for the day, cool drinks, beer on the beach and afterwards a reception and prize giving. The conditions improved all day long and by the time I paddled out it was perfect. The current worked well for me, pulling me out to the line-up without severe paddling from my side.  But, on the other hand, the current did not help Goedehoop Winery (my partner in BLACK and THE WHITE BLACK) that much when he got swept out to sea and Winelands Estate Management had to suit up for the rescue paddle. Anyhow, both of them were acknowledged at the prize giving that night – Goedehoop received the “Shark-bait award” and WEM “The Hoff award” (David Hasselhoff). In the meantime great action took place when The Sadie Family showed just a bit more consistency in order to take out Tokara, with Beaumont Wines fighting for a place in the Semi’s. Anyway, with a little help from Nederburg, my half arm took me to the semi’s when a razor sharp Cape Point Vineyards did to me what he does to most other Sauvignon blanc’s:  kicked my butt. In the junior finals, the younger guys came through with consistency. Le Riche and Remhoogte giving De Vallei and Cape Point Vineyards a run for their money. Cape Point vineyards took the win with a few huge backhand hacks , De Vallei second. In the Ballies division epic surfing went down. These guys age well.  Tamboerskloof took the trophy yet again with Ecostake a close second. Reyneke Wines really ripped in the early rounds but struggled to get the right waves in the finals, taking a 3^rd position with Newton Johnson Wines in 4^th. In the Older Ballies final (44 and older) it was tough as usual. Brammon Wines took on Takana vineyards for first place but Takana sneaked a win with some of the best backhand surfing of the contest with the 3^rd and 4^th spots filled with ever present Conspirae and Taquanta. The ladies trophy was taken by Trizanne Signature Wines, who happened to have had a baby a mere 3 months before the event.

The evening function at Stables Restaurant rocked. For some more than others. I happened to overheard the venue’s owner speaking to clients whom she had to show away due to the private function: “Yes, we have a rough night ahead of us, we work hard and go to bed very very late, but at least it’s only once a year!”. We had an epic spot prize giving with Joubert Tradouw Wines winning the Best Wipeout Award (The most spectacular fall on a wave), Noble Hill Wines spending most time in the water, Douglas Green Bellingham winning The Best Barrel Award (when you position yourself within the power section of a wave so that it breaks over you) and the Blow-out Award (Blowing a perfectly set up barrel by face planting) went to Wazu Wines.

And then for the biggest prizes of the evening: 2 surfboards. The one went to Douglas Green Bellingham and the other… to BLANKbottle. My first ever lucky draw win!!! SPECTACULAR!!!!!!! Thank you Tonnelerie Bordelaise!

The next morning I had to stop by Stables to pick up my daughter Alexa’s little pink top that we had left behind. Whilst going through the heap of lost and found, I got a clear indication of who ended up on the bar counter...

To have nothing to declare could mean one of two things: a. I'm doing something illegal or b. I choose to withhold information from you.  As with all BLANKbottle wines, it means the latter. "Nothing to Declare 2010" - a blend of Chenin blanc and a very interesting varietal. Let's leave it at that for the time being.

The grapes for "Nothing to Declare 2010" were handpicked from exquisite Swartland and Voor Paardeberg vineyards, pressed in a basket press and barrel fermented using only the natural yeast present on the grapes. No additives (except for a little bit of Sulphur) were added, it was aged for one year in older barrels and blended and bottled in January 2011. The wine is a winter white made in an oxidative way (exposure to limited amounts of oxygen in the early stages of winemaking). The result: a big, round and spicy wine. Perfect partner to spicy dishes.

Nothing to Declare, at R45 a bottle. Buy it now...  E-mail me with your order or buy online with your credit card. You are welcome to make up mixed cases.

We're bottling today. The second BLACK vintage that made it to bottle. The 2010, aged in small French oak for 12 months and then to larger 700 liter casks for 6 months. The wine is elegant and sophisticated like you won't believe.

All the best from a pumping bottling line, Pieter and Albert

A few weeks ago, while I was on holiday in the Kruger, I asked a guy who was referred to me by my very focused on detail German born dad, to re-spray my bakkie. After 350 000 km it desperately needed one.

I asked for all standard colors. When I got it back it looked like new, except for the belly plate. Can you believe it; shocking "kanarie geel". You see it from miles away. Anyhow, he did not charge for it, I suppose it's like a trademark thing for the cars he's done in the past, or maybe just the manifestation of pure passion, he can't stop himself... I have respect for that and will therefore keep it yellow. And it makes for a great story.

Last week Xaver (my brother) and I produced a new BLANKbottle short film: "A day in the life of BLANKbottle". Whilst writing the script, I once again realized how much goes into the production of one wine!

There's only 1 person on BLANKbottle's payroll and that's me. But, there are many faces behind BLANKbottle. No man is an island... and BLANKbottle is no exception. My days are so diverse. I never thought I would say this, but some days, I actually crave monotony. BLANKbottle is an integrated system of people who operate independently in their field of expertise whilst I, as graciously as possible, glide amongst them.

I start my day at the office, working on new blends, sorting out packaging and catching up on admin. In the meantime, the guys in the vineyards are pruning. Label designs are being finalised, a copywriter is editing my newsletter. Despatch is sending out new orders, the photographer's taking pack shots, programmers are updating the website. Samples of new wines are being tasted across Europe. The accounting is being wrapped up for the year. Printing plates are in production, we are designing new boxes, orders are being delivered and my warehouse is completing month end stock take. Oh yes, and I am also experimenting with new packaging methods, proof reading a magazine article,  juggling  constant phone calls and arranging 7 wine tasting events in Joburg.

Keep in mind that in the meantime, clients are browsing my website, placing orders, dinking my wines and communicating.

Now this is a day in the life of BLANKbottle, and it's not even harvest time! Everyone gives a little bit of their passion and each BLANKbottle is an expression of our values, personalities and philosophies.

For the past 3 days we've been filming a new film for BLANKbottle. My brother, Xaver's here for a big production and thanks to brotherly love, made some time available for BLANKbottle. Check out Xaver's website here: www.subgraviti.com

Just got back from a lekke interview and photoshoot with VISI magazine. Great to be part of this. See Aug/Sept issue "Blue sky thinkers".

See picture of Alma in front of the VISI team's Aug/Sept issue planning board. Very interesting.