As with the last wine I released, the story behind the Colonel is super controversial and interesting but this is one that I do not want to write an essay about.
It is based on much the same theory of that which drives “Confessions of a White Glove Chaser 2013”, my 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Helderberg – Somerset West, except that it is from another area. And when you move into a different area you need to adjust your site selection strategies slightly. Or maybe I should say significantly. The area/people/climate dictate the varietal or cultivar of choice and this ultimately ends up as a complete different style of wine produced. Therefore the same strategy with completely contrasting outcomes.
The name “col. (Colonel) MULSCAL ROOS” is a type of amalgamation word, and within this amalgamation lies the code that unlocks and reveals my very basic, yet secret strategy in site selection for Shiraz grapes in the Voor Paardeberg, around Riebeeck Kasteel, Hopefield/Darling and the slopes of the Paardeberg – And that is about all I’m at liberty to say about the name.
The wine is not your typical new world big, oaky Shiraz. The wine is compact; red fruit, spice and rather fresh and lively with great length. It is from 4 different parcels of Shiraz; 3 are located around the Paardeberg mountain (2 of them growing on decomposed granite in the Swartland and the other one located just across the border in the Voor Paardeberg). The 4th parcel grows in the Riebeecks river, close to Riebeeck Kasteel, and the last component (a very small block of Carignan) resides towards Hopefield/Darling. About 30% of the grapes were fermented in little open top fermenters as whole bunches. What makes this significant is that 30% of the stems were present throughout fermentation. You then get a kind of tannin that comes from it and gives a fresh cool herbaceous extreme length to the wine. So you can drink col. MULSCAL ROOS now, but it will be best in 3 – 5 years and beyond (if you have enough self-discipline to keep it that long). What I am trying to say is that it was made to last. It sells for R155 a bottle and yes I designed the label myself again. It is a linography carving printed as an image.
Another significant change is the label paper used. In our industry paper choice for label printing are very limited. You only have a choice of a few types of self-adhesive plastic label paper. I wanted a wider selection of paper to choose from. I wanted to start using real paper, but then you have no self-adhesive backing. So we imported a little manual wet glue application machine from Germany. The col. MULSCAL ROOS labels were printed on real paper, we then adhered a wet glue layer with the machine and hand labeled every bottle, the way they did it 100 years ago – so here at BLANKbottle every improvement implies that we work hard to move backwards when it comes to technology and the industrial age.
