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.
