BATAVIA – Cape Blend

The blending of BLANKbottle BATAVIA – BLANKbottle’s first Cape Blend (a Bordeaux style blend that consists of a significant amount of Pinotage). This wine took months of planning. I started off with 3 wines: Firstly I had a CABERNET SAUVIGNON from a very popular Cabernet spot on the slopes of the Simonsberg.

The wine had been aged for 15 months in 225 litre French oak barrels. It was elegant and rich, but at the same time fresh: a New world style with great aging possibilities. The other two wines were both produced on Simonsberg. The lighter MERLOT was fruit driven, with light raspberry and cherry flavours and the CABERNET FRANC, an old world style wine with farmyard nuances and an earthiness to it.

Now all these wines are great and can be bottled as single varietal wines but I felt that by blending, you could achieve so much more. My philosophy still is: The whole is better than the sum of the parts. So after working on the main blend I ended up with a possible wine made up of the Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet franc. The wine was good, but I wanted to add excitement. I needed an edge to the wine. I sourced all over and after lots of experimenting found

THE EDGE: a fantastic Pinotage from Riebeeck Kasteel. So the final blend is: 53% Cabernet, 18% Merlot, 9% Cabernet franc and 20% Pinotage. Thanks to all who helped me put a price to the BATAVIA. I hand selected 63 of my valued clients to assist me in this adventure. Each received a case of wine delivered to their house. They tasted it on their own / drank it with friends / did blind tastings / compared it to well known expensive brands / compared it to well known cheap brands / braaied with it / went fishing with it / took it to the bush / gave it away / compared it with food / drank it, drank it and drank it.... bottom line: it sounds like they had HEAPS of fun! The single purpose : To put a price to the wine. What's interesting is that most of them commented that they determined a price not only based on what they think it is worth, but also on what they can afford. And that's then what they paid me. Based on what they paid, I worked out the average price and will now release the rest of the wine at that