The BLANKBOTTLE Winery

Pieter Walser never set out to become one of the most prolific and unconventional winemakers in South Africa. The story of BLANKbottle begins with a young man selling unlabelled wine to fund his studies, a brush with customs and excise authorities, and a moment of accidental genius when he handed a bottle of unmarked Shiraz to a customer who insisted she hated the variety. She loved it. The blank bottle became the brand.

From a small cellar on a farm outside Somerset West in the Western Cape, Walser now produces up to 47 different wines each year, sourcing roughly 35 grape varieties from around 60 vineyards scattered across the Cape. Almost half of these wines are once-off bottlings that will never be repeated. Each wine gets its own name, its own story, and its own hand-designed label — a practice that took on new dimension in 2013 when a series of severe epileptic seizures left Walser unable to work at computer screens for extended periods. The experience paradoxically unlocked a more visceral artistic ability, and his labels became increasingly distinctive, hand-drawn works that hint at the wine inside without revealing conventional information.

Walser's winemaking philosophy is as unorthodox as his labels. He is a negociant in the truest sense, buying grapes rather than farming them, which gives him extraordinary freedom to explore different terroirs, varieties, and blending possibilities. His approach in the cellar is low-intervention, guided by instinct and a deep curiosity about what each parcel of fruit wants to become.

The wines span the full spectrum: from serious, age-worthy Syrah and Chenin Blanc to playful, experimental blends that defy categorisation. Names like Moment of Silence, Nothing to Declare, Empire Strikes Back, and Seelug hint at the personality behind each bottle. Tim Atkin MW has rated 20 of 26 BLANKbottle wines between 92 and 95 points, placing the project firmly among South Africa's most critically acclaimed.

There is no tasting room in the traditional sense. BLANKbottle wines are available through select retailers and the estate's website, making each bottle something of a treasure hunt. Walser produces close to 40 different wines annually, and with nearly half never to be repeated, the range rewards the curious and the adventurous.

BLANKbottle is not an estate, not a farm, and not a conventional label. It is one man's ongoing experiment with the raw materials of the Cape, bottled without pretension and sold without a safety net.