Blank Bottle Seelug 2022

Pieter Walser is the owner of this special winery: Blank Bottle. Pieter does everything differently than all other winemakers. Despite not owning any vineyards of his own, Pieter buys grapes from over 80 different vineyards spread across the Western Cape. All these different grapes present themselves in the over 40 different wines that are bottled each year. Managing so many vineyards requires careful planning and collaboration with local farmers and expert winemakers.

There is little to no information about the wine on his bottles. This makes you look at the quality of the wine, the content and the way it is made. This means you have no expectations of his wines. His motto is “Clothes maketh not the man; judge our wines on what’s in the bottle, not by means of preconceived ideas.”

The grapes for Seelug come from the Heldenberg in Stellenbosch, the plot has a view of False Bay. The chardonnay grapes were picked at optimum ripeness and cooled overnight to 4 degrees Celsius. The next morning the grapes were pressed in whole bunches. The juice underwent spontaneous fermentation in older French oak and 40% new barrels. The wine remained on the lees for 10 months before being blended and bottled.

The story behind Seelug as told by Pieter: During the ’22 harvest I visited a Chardonnay vineyard on the lower slopes of the Helderberg overlooking False Bay. On a hot day I noticed the offshore wind was blowing, good news for my local surf spot. I made a note to quickly take samples from this vineyard. Twenty minutes later the wind had changed to onshore, the waves were spoiled. Then I realised – SEELUG! It felt like cooling sea air caressing my face. As the onshore waves disappeared the sea air cooled the Chardonnay in the vineyard.”

For Pieter it is all about telling stories through his wine, even the labels are carefully designed by himself to reflect the unique nature of each bottle.

In the beginning Pieter only made one-off wines, every year the wines were different. Now 30% of his wines are Limited Edition. He can do this because he does not have a farm with vines himself, but only a winery. He buys all the grapes from different farmers from different vineyards. He has always designed the labels of the wine himself. 15 years ago he did this with Microsoft Word because he could not afford a designer. He still makes the labels himself and it is something he really enjoys.