B-BOS-1 2018
If you translate Baardskeerdersbos into English, it means “Beard-Shavers-Bush”, named after a famous spider that lives in these parts of the country. This spider builds its nest from human hair… The StoryMy grandmother grew up on a farm near a town called Bredasdorp. It’s about 45 minutes drive from L’Agulhas, where the most Southern point of the African continent is situated. When she got married, she received a wedding gift from her parents - a plot of land right next to the ocean in L’Agulhas. She built a small wooden house with the money she received as wedding gifts (seems like the standard of wedding gifts has lowered significantly in the years since then…). It’s 75 years later and the wooden house called “T-nie-C” is now my mom’s and still fully operational as a family holiday house. This is our post-harvest, post-travel, post-bottling family hideaway and very close to our hearts. The place where the kids and Aneen and I reconnect with each other and ourselves, and also where I design most of my labels.
Because of this, I’ve always wanted to produce a wine of origin Cape Agulhas. I had my eye on a few possible sites but it was a phone call from Caroline Rillema, owner of Caroline's Fine Wines (a wine shop in Cape Town), that was the start of an epic venture in this area. Caroline is a formidable force in the wine industry and she and her husband Ray, planted two vineyards on their holiday breakaway smallholding in a little town called Baardskeerdersbos. As the crow flies it is 47 km from our little house in L’Agulhas. If you translate Baardskeerdersbos into English, it means “Beard-Shavers-Bush”, named after a famous spider that lives in these parts of the country. This spider builds its nest from human hair… and the myth goes that when you go to bed at night the Baardskeerder spider will climb into your bed and shave your beard for the construction of his home. So I make wine from two different wines on Caroline’s property - B-BOS-1 and B-BOS-2.
B-BOS 1: I've had two different bottlings of this wine - initially I only bottled a small bit to test the market, but when it sold out on my first tasting, I immediately went onto a second bottling. Please note - in the second bottling of B-BOS 1, the blend differs:
B-BOS-1 - Lot number: LBBOS0119 is: 90% Sauvignon Blanc with 10% Semillon
ALCOHOL (%): 14.50%
RESIDUAL SUGAR (g/L): 1.6
TOTAL ACIDITY (g/L): 5.55
PH: 3.42
And B-BOS-1 - Lot number: LBBOS0419 is 50% Sauvignon blanc and 50% Semillon.
ALCOHOL (%): 14.00%
RESIDUAL SUGAR (g/L): 1.95
TOTAL ACIDITY (g/L): 5.67
PH: 3.29
And the second wine from her property is BBOS 2: a straight Semillon.
Technical InformationVintage: 2018Voice recordingHow to orderPlease note
Due to the many small batches of wines we make, availability changes on a daily basis. Please email aneen@blankbottle.co.za if you’d like to order any of our wines or if you are looking for a specific wine, and she will reply with a list of wines now selling. If the wine you are looking for is sold out, we could suggest some alternative excitement and/or we could also put together a unique selection for you.
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