BLANKbottle "R @ 65" '22

You won’t find the varieties that go into any bottle of Blankbottle listed on the label, and that’s at least in part because its winemaker and founder, Pieter Walser, doesn’t want you to know what they are before tasting the wine. It’s a way to soften any preconceived notions you might have of a wine before you taste it, so that you focus instead on its quality. In other words, it’s a sort of “don’t judge a book by its cover” approach. And while we at Perman support that premise, we’re also going to do the opposite and give you all the information about “Retirement at 65” that you’d expect from us.

Pieter sources grapes for his wines from vineyards throughout the Western Cape. The 2022 vintage of “Retirement at 65” is a blend of 44% Shiraz, the most ever used for this bottling, and 56% Cinsault, with the aromas of each grape complementing the other, amplifying freshness, and adding length. The Cinsault vineyard was planted in 1951, on the edge of the mountain in a small valley, on sandy decomposed granite soil. It was one of the only food sources in the area, and birds would pick at the bunches with their beaks, causing them to rot. By the time the grapes ripened, there weren’t many left, so Pieter solved that issue by covering the vines with bird nets. This wasn’t the last problem he and the vineyard’s farmer faced, as a fence had to be raised later to protect the vines from sheep. Finally, in 2016, for the first time in 65 years, they were able to pick a small, healthy crop.
 
The grapes were hand sorted and partially destemmed. The wine was fermented in open-top fermenters, with a combination of de-stemmed grapes and whole bunches. The juice underwent spontaneous fermentation on the skins. The wine was then aged in used oak for eight months, blended, and bottled.