BlankBottle Retirement at 65 2024
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In the 2024 vintage there is a blend of 95% of the oldest Cinsault vineyards in Darling. Planted in 1951 – with 5% Shiraz from its neighbour.
In June 2014, Pieter arrived at a farm in Darling where he was met by a very grumpy farmer. And for good reason he soon learnt. He had bought bits of grapes from the farmer during that year’s harvest (which all turned out really promising) and was doing his annual post-harvest farm visit with a fresh barrel sample for the farmer to taste.
One of his grape clients had previously persuaded him to farm a little Cinsault vineyard by method of minimum intervention. Not in an organic kind of way, but more towards a 300% leave-the-vineyard-to-be kind of way.
To make a long story short, due to many contributing factors, all the grapes of this little Cinsault vineyard ended up going to the pigs and he was blaming his minimum intervention 300% leave-the-vineyard-to-be-client for all of this. To make matters worse, for the 62 years prior to this, the vineyard hardly produced grapes sufficient to produce wine with. You see, this grandfather planted the vineyard in 1951 and had still used a horse to plough the land. The vineyard is on the edge of the mountain in a little valley and the only food source around. So as the berries accumulated sugar, the birds would hop from bunch to bunch pricking the berries with their beaks, causing them to rot. And by the time the grapes ripened there wasn’t much left. Now things like this interest Pieter, he asked the farmer if they could give it one more try.
He reluctantly agreed on the condition that he farms the block the way he believes one should. Pieter, in turn, agreed to buy bird nets to cover the vines and they had a deal. So in mid 2014 the vines were neatly pruned and he took care of the weeds. That spring, after bud break, the first soft green shoots appeared. Everything looks good! Then, one Sunday afternoon, he received a photo on whatsapp. It was the vineyard in question with about 20 odd sheep feeding in the vineyard and no sign of the newly formed soft shoots – only brown stumps remaining as the vineyard celebrated its 64th birthday. Late that Friday night his sheep had broken through the fence and ate everything green in colour. So there went another crop and the farmer got even more despondent.
But he didn’t give up and so, in June 2015, he raised the fence. In early November they covered the whole in bird nets. Finally, in February 2016 (for the first time in 65 years!) The vineyard survived the onslaught of wild animals roaming the hillsides of Darling and Pieter picked a very small, but healthy crop.
The grapes were picked at optimal ripeness and cooled overnight to 4 degrees celcius. The next morning the grapes were hand sorted and partially de-stemmed. It fermented in open top fermenters, a combination of de-stemmed grapes and whole bunches. The juice underwent spontaneous fermentation and stayed on the skins for as long as possible. Aged in older oak for 8 months, blended and bottled.
Tim Atkin – South Africa Report 2025 – 95 points
Retirement @65 – now there’s a thought – is a Darling blend of Cinsault and 5% Syrah. Fermented with 60% whole bunches and aged in old wood, it’s kind of light red that Pieter Walser does so well, with Turkish Delight and ginger spice aromas and succulent strawberry, goji berry and raspberry coulis flavours.
