2013 Blank Bottle Confessions of a White Glove Chaser
  • Analysis
  • Vineyards
  • Vinification and Aging
  • Tasting Notes
  • 2013 Vintage Notes

Blank Bottle Confessions of a White Glove Chaser 2013

Wine of Origin

Stellenbosch

Varietals

100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Analysis

Wine Maker: Pieter H. Walser

Alcohol: 14.5%

pH: 3.79 g/l

Residual Sugar: 1.49 g/l

Total Acidity: 5.47 g/l

Owning a farm limits you to the vineyards on your specific farm. I love traveling and experiencing many different areas. I want to make area specific wines, wines that will be ambassadors for areas. I harvest 55 tons from 47 vineyards; 26 different varietals and growing – anything from Fernao Pirez to Cabernet. In the 2015 harvest, I drove 13 000 killometers in 100 days to pick my grapes.

Vineyard-site selection is where all wine begins, and to me personally, one of my most crucial decisions. For the last 2 years though, I have been focusing on core varietals, where it’s much more challenging to be a step ahead. The Helderberg’s been called by some as one of the best places in South Africa to grow Bordeaux varietals (stuff like Cab, Merlot, Petit Verdot, Malbec etc.) This led to a lot of activity on the mountain and some wineries going all out, really ALL OUT, to identify the right spots for the production of these varietals.

0% new oak was used – all aged in small French oak 9 year old barrels for 15 months. The wine was held on the grape skins after alcoholic fermentation for 2.5 months. From grape to wine there was nothing except a bit of sulphur added.

Oh, yes and the label was again designed by me. I traced the shape of my 8-year-old son’s hand and using linography, created the image for the label. The wine, like all my wines, hand made, hand bottled and hand labeled – by the colourful people of South Africa.

A beautiful deep Ruby colored wine in the glass shows a very fresh and exuberant bouquet of bright red and black fruit aromas. Red raspberry, black cherry, and overripe strawberry are supported by subtle hints of eucalyptus and cassis. Because of the big fresh fruit profile, the 2013 “Confessions” is an ideal wine for cocktail hour, but is also fantastic when paired with any sort of roasted meat or savory game.

The 2013 vintage was without a doubt one of the most challenging yet rewarding vintages of the past few years. Superb winter and spring conditions set the stage, but this was followed by occasional humid conditions in February and March which meant that canopy management before veraison was the key to healthy fruit. The growing season was a good one, with quantity up around 5 to 20 percent, depending on where you were, and good quality thanks to a long and lovely ripening period. Our only challenge was a lot of rain and cold over Easter when we were mid-harvest. Late ripening Bordeaux varietals produced a more elegant and finessed wine.