Blackwater

Blackwater Wine is the brainchild of Francois Haasbroek, a man that is unequivocally part of the bright future of South African wine. Francois graduated with a bachelor's degree in science – viticulture and oenology from Stellenbosch University. His first stint as a 'cellar rat' was at Neil Ellis wines. He also worked in California, at Dry Creek Vineyard in Sonoma and at Jackson Estate in Marlborough, New Zealand. Upon his return from New Zealand, Francois was offered the winemaker post at Waterford Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. He started Blackwater Wine project in 2010, which ultimately became his focus full time in 2012.
Blackwater Wines are focused on sourcing fruit from the best possible vineyards across the Western Cape, building long lasting relationships with the growers, and making wines that truly showcase their places of origin. With the minimal intervention ethos in the cellar, it all comes down to the grapes, no wine making tricks – just sticking to the basics and attention to details. Francois enjoys wines built on natural acidity & grape tannin, not plastered under layers of oak with countless additions and manipulations forced upon it.

Underdog, Chenin Blanc

Francois continues to produce one of the most outstanding values for South Africa’s most important grape. While being the most important grape, Chenin Blanc still has an ‘underdog’ personality as it pales in global importance to Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and even Riesling. A shame, truly.  The 2021 takes on an entirely new persona as it comes from a single old-vine vineyard just north of the Kasteelberg, which is a site that has been a small part of the blend in the past.  The dry-farmed bushvines bring a saline element and fruit intensity that the wine has never seen, all with brilliant acid.

The grapes were hand-harvested in late-February and whole-bunch pressed to stainless steel tank where the lots underwent spontaneous fermentation. After primary fermentation finished, roughly 12 days, the wine was racked off of the gross lees primarily to concrete tanks with a bit of stainless-steel for maturation on the fine lees. Six months later, Francois blended the tanks and bottled the wines without fining, with a very coarse filtration and s small addition of sulfur.

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Picquet, Chenin Blanc

Heading north from Malmesbury toward Namibia (not that far of course) and encroaching on the isolated Skurfberg/Citrusdal Mountain ward is steep peak that looks as if it is taking off from the earth. Johan Meyer (AKA Stompie) has his new homestead and vineyard on this hill and is petitioning to have the high altitudes of this hill to be named ‘Piket-bo-berg’, after the geographic name of this mountain. The climate, soils, and aspect couldn’t be any more different than the flatter plains of the ‘Swartland’ below. On the less-dramatic but equally as compelling hillsides below Stompie’s home, Francois was given a little tip about this bushvine, ironstone riddled hillside vineyard at the base of the ‘Piket-bo-berg’ and in 2016 made the trek from Stellenbosch to see the site. He was enamored and knew it would become his ‘grand cru’ shortly. 2017 was the first vintage and the intensity and power of the site is extraordinary. The pH literally stops moving as the sugars and phenolics grow exponentially. This site produces a wine of dense mass with a refreshing vein of acidity that permeates the palate.

The fruit was handpicked in early March and left to cool overnight. The bunches were then whole-bunch pressed, with the turbid juice settling for ten hours in a semi-oxidative state, before being sent to a combination of used barrels in 225L and 500L formats. Fermentation kicked off but takes its sweet time as the wine didn’t go dry for nearly four months, which is the norm for this site given the crazy low pH. After ten months of aging the barrels were selected for this cuvée, as a few made it into the ‘Chaos Theory’ Blanc, and the wine was racked to tank to settle. After two weeks it was bottled without fining or filtration and just a small addition of sulfur.

 

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Hinterland, Cinsalt

Throughout the rest of the world this wine is known as ‘Zeitgeist’ but in the US Francois was forced to rename it ‘Hinterland.’ The ‘hinterland’ is an uncharted area beyond a coastal district. It is quite applicable here seeing as the sleepy town is less than ten miles from the Atlantic Ocean and surrounded by the vast area of fields of the western Swartland. Cinsault has found its spiritual home in Darling. Here the late Boetie Van Reenen, who passed away much too young at age 37 in 2017 (he was born the year the Cinsault block was planted), farmed an insane site that has since been taken care of by various family members and employees. Boetie was responsible for these much-coveted Cinsault vines that have drawn the likes of many of the biggest names in the South African wine community. The dry-farmed, bushvine Cinsault gaining cool breezes from the nearby ocean coupled with just enough warm sun to intensify the grapes a bit really speaks of the koffieklip riddled granitic soils. There is a freshness and precision rarely seen with Cinsault and the pH stays low enough where whole-clusters can be used.

The hand-harvested fruit was from two rows in the middle of the hill and was transported back to Francois’ winery to cold soak overnight. Fermentation was done in two one-ton fermenters with one being two-thirds whole-clusters on the bottom and destemmed fruit on top and the other being half and half destemmed and whole-cluster fruit with the clusters on top. A fair bit of hand plunging ensued over the first few days to really get the fermentation going and then basically left alone. After ten days the wine was dry enough to press and send with the fine lees to a 9hL nomblot concrete egg for aging. After 11 months the wine was bottled directly from the egg off of the lees hit with a small addition of sulfur but no other adjustments were made.

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Pleasure Garden, Palomino

Palomino is a white grape widely grown in Spain (particularly in the Jerez region), and best known for its use in the production of sherry. In Spain, the grape is split into the sub-varieties Palomino Fino, Palomino Basto, and Palomino de Jerez, of which Palomino Fino is by far the most important grape variety used for sherry. It is medium-sized, golden in color and produces large, loose clusters. It also has the least amount of malic acid of any other grape. Palomino ripens early and yields are generally high and regular and for all of these reasons it was planted in the Cape for brandy production over two hundred years ago. The variety is quite obscure today though as fate would have it Francois rediscovered a 90+-year old vineyard in Robertson. It was planted the year Alfred Hitchcock released his first feature film, ‘The Pleasure Garden’ and Francois believed that aptly defined this vineyard. He took a chance with the variety in 2016 and continues to experiment to find the right expression. The ’18 is really close to perfection and being entirely concrete fermented and without skin contact for the vintage you can really see the filigree expression of Palomino.

The fruit was harvested toward the end of March and whole-bunch pressed the fruit with full solids directly to a single concrete egg. Here fermentation occurred without any additions and the shape of the egg allowed for a natural battonage lees with the juice. The wine aged for 12 months in concrete without any additions and was directly bottled without fining or filtration and just a small addition of sulfur.

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Lazy Lucy, Rose

2021 represents a new chapter for this wine being a single-site Grenache from a dry-farmed vineyard in Riebeek. The wine continues to be named after Francois’ English Bulldog who views getting up to muck around as serious work.  There might be a paleness in color though there is noticeable high-viz intensity of flavor.  This is a truly magnificent bottling and the finest rosé Francois has made to this day.

The grapes were hand-harvested into small picking bins and brought back to the winery, a light hand squeezing was done for a portion of the ferment to break up the berries a bit and after 3 hours the bunches were pressed to small concrete tanks. Fermentation occurred naturally and malolactic fermentation was not carried out. After four months aging on lees the wine was clean racked with a very coarse filtration to tank to settle for one week. The wine was then bottled without fining and with a small addition of sulfur.

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