BLANK Bottle, 1-Click Off Pinot Noir, Elgin 2021

From a small vineyard situated in the Elgin appellation. It took him a few years before the vineyard was healthy enough to produce the wines he wanted. The wine is fermented and aged in one 300-litre new oak barrel, and in one 225-litre old oak barrel so about 60% new oak is used, explaining the powerful character of the wine.

Pieter Walser, the winemaker at BLANKbottle was coined “The man making mind-bending wine” by The Telegraph so prepare to have your mind blown with some new wines from BLANKbottle. His wines have built an astonishing following since we first took them and are getting better and better.

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 40 wines, other years 50. 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. So as quantities are very limited for some wines, grab some now, whilst you can.