I took a bit of a Twitter/facebook/daily report break the past few months. I’ve been busy with a few new projects. The released of the Spaniard Educational Range was a huge one for me. I released a straight Grenache, Mourvèdre, Carignan and Cinsaut 2007. These 4 wines have really placed BLANKbottle on a new level in terms of innovation. The Spaniard 2007, one of the most successful wines ever for BLANKbottle, as well as the Carignan, is now sold out. Most definitely a wine I will be repeating on a larger scale in future. I am working on the next Spaniard bottling, but as you know all the BLANKbottle wines differ from year to year, and this one is no exception. Let’s see how it goes…
I’m now is the process of arranging a few wine tastings where I’ll be presenting The Spaniard and the Educational range in a series of wine tastings across the country. My aim is to educate and build awareness when it come to these lesser known varietals.
I’ve always liked the challenge and risk that comes with designing your own labels. I’ve been doing this with BLANKbottle ever since I started. I’m sure it wouldn’t be such a challenge for a professional designer, but for me, deciding between all the options in terms of colours, shapes, design etc etc. is no simple task . I’ve now decided to take this a bit further and design 3 totally new labels: BLANKbottle BLACK and The White BLACK as well as the new Moment of Silence. Again it is very simple and just a matter of finding the right font to use on it. Anyhow, they say that simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. I will be printing these labels within the next month and label soon thereafter. Keep your eyes open for this release.
We also had the annual Vintners surf classic in Stillbay. This is a surfing competition only open to surfing winemakers. I’ve surfed it twice before and both of the times came second. Kleinood’s winemaker Gunter Shultz usually beats me. This year I won the juniors and no I did not win Gunter. He surfed for the seniors. I now have to wait another 2 years for my next chance to beat him. All in all, the Vintners is not about winning, it is all about the integration of a bunch of surfing/winemaking madmen. All of these guys are so special and interesting. Like the website ”The BOMB SURF” says: Probably the coolest surfing contest in the country.
I am also busy working on a new project: my website. Most of you would not see the difference at a mere glance, but I switched over to a more sophisticated, stronger and safer backend to run my website. It’s loads more professionally and is easy to use. I need a bigger capacity for when I’m taking on new ground later this year. But I will keep you posted.
See a few interesting pics below.