An intriguing holiday tale of a fish eagle, a Cape cobra, a neuroscientific wine and a meat-packing factory. Prepare to have your mind blown… into many pieces.
Having known Pieter Walser of Blank Bottle fame for over 10 years, I finally got to visit him at his winery just outside Cape Town last November while on holiday. It was crystal clear to see how he continues to make wines that overdeliver and bring new, exciting stories to the table, all backed by his phenomenal creative flair, unending energy and charisma.
A Cape Cobra Welcome
(Spot the snake)
Just after we arrived, Pieter spotted a large black Cape cobra outside the winery. Such was its rarity that, excitedly, he invited us and his entire team, who promptly downed tools, to take a closer look.
Not too close, mind you. I’m fairly certain my holiday medical insurance doesn’t cover highly venomous snake bites.
There was such excitement before we’d properly started, it quickly became apparent there is never a dull moment at Blank Bottle.
We tasted dozens of wines as Pieter makes so many, all in small volumes, and while it’s difficult to pick standouts, I’ll do my best.
Pierre Le Cois - A Helderberg Cabernet Merlot blend
On the way to the winery, we’d taken an early morning trek through the Helderberg Nature Reserve, becoming acutely aware of the extraordinary biodiversity on the mountain’s lower slopes. There are countless species of vividly coloured proteas here which seem almost detectable in the lifted aromatics of Pierre le Cois.
We saw no snakes. We still shook our sticks regardless.
The scale and majesty of the Helderberg (and the surrounding Cape mountains) are awe-inspiring. Photographs simply don’t do them justice, you’ll have to visit yourself.
Descending the slopes, we clocked the proximity of the Southern Ocean, waves crashing onto golden sand. This maritime influence, combined with the mountain’s shadow effect, delivers a minty freshness and superb balance to the wine.
The sunshine was strong — deceptively so. I reached for my wide-brimmed hat and factor 50. The Cabernet and Merlot grapes grown in heat retaining, clay-rich soils get no such protection. Instead, they adapt: thickening skins for protection, delivering deeper colour extraction and a generous core of ripe fruit under near-perfect ripening conditions.
As for the label, Pieter carved the fish eagle, inspired by a sculpture overlooking a nearby reservoir, from one of his old wooden kitchen doors to create an ink stamp. Wood appears again in the élevage: 18 months in small French oak barrels (not kitchen doors) to round the wine into its current, super-smashable form.
Seelug Chardonnay – A Single-vineyard Helderberg Chardonnay
Staying in the Helderberg, Seelug is sourced from a single vineyard and is a relatively new addition to Pieter’s range. It’s the first 100% Chardonnay of his I’ve tried and unusual for his use of new French and German oak.
Individual, shrapnel-free, 200-year-old oak trees are carefully selected by his fourth-generation Bolzanini cooper to play a supporting role and fully integrate with the wine. Pieter dislikes toasted oak flavours, so chooses the best-quality virgin oak barrels he can source.
“Seelug” means “sea air” in Afrikaans, fitting, as the vineyard lies just 4km from the ocean. The sea acts as a natural air-conditioning unit, giving the wine its refreshing citrus flow and unmistakable saline edge.
Pieter surfs when time permits and told me Seelug is one of the few vineyards where the onshore wind can be so strong, he’s had to cancel an afternoon’s surfing.
Orbitofrontal Cortex - The ‘no rules’ blend
Orbitofrontal Cortex isn’t new, but it changes every vintage. It’s a “no rules” blend, improvised, instinctive and without recipe.
The backstory, about a plane journey where Pieter is seated next to a neuroscientist, is surely one of the best in the wine world. Conceived as the conscious counterpoint to Pieter’s more ‘scientific’ wine, Limbic, this is Pieter leaning into pure instinct: tasting hundreds of samples and assembling his top blend.
The 2023 vintage is his best yet. Chenin Blanc-led, supported by 13 harmonising varieties, it’s aged mainly in old neutral oak, with some concrete vats, clay amphora and just a smidge of new oak.
There’s no requirement to use your brain to enjoy it, Pieter’s done all the thinking already.
You’ll recognise him on the label: his face rendered as a linocut.
Shop Orbitofrontal Cortex here
Frostbite at Westpeak - A Sauternes-style sweet wine — with a twist
And finally, a first for me: Frostbite at Westpeak, a Sauternes-style sweet wine, but naturally with several Blank Bottle twists.
Intent on crafting a dessert wine from his Elgin Sauvignon Blanc grower, Pieter manually twisted the stalks of each bunch to cut off the water supply. The grapes dehydrated on the vine, concentrating sugars.
In the winery, new to sweet winemaking, he couldn’t stop the fermentation. So he loaded the barrels into his bakkie (pickup truck to us Brits) and drove them to a friend’s meat-packing factory in Westpeak, storing them at -23°C for three weeks to arrest fermentation.
Hence the name. And the pig hanging by its hind leg on the label.
You couldn’t make it up and frankly, that alone is worth the ticket price.
Next time I’m planning to eat pork belly, slow-cooked pork shoulder or, for pure decadent effect, suckling pig, or possibly (and more likely) a pineapple curry or creamy cashew curry, Frostbite it must be.
Shop Frostbite at Westpeak here
A final footnote: all of Pieter’s wines are vegan-friendly. The irony with this one isn’t lost on me.
