Blank Bottle Little William 2020

The 2020 - this is up to date our smallest production of this wine. Unfortunately we got hit by frost when the new shoots just emerged. We lost the whole year's primary shoots and had to rely on the hidden reserves of the vine to produce a sort of second crop. Luckily the frost was at a very early stage so the vineyard recovered well. The wine was fermented as whole bunches.

We also introduced a bit of new oak to the wine with really great results. It was the vision of Marguerite Mavros Macdonald to plant vines in the Witzenberg mountains on her husband Dugald's family farm. I got involved in 2015 and this wine has become my favourite expression of South African Shiraz. In South Africa we have the luxury of mountains. These mountains separate desert from coastal areas and create valleys and different exposures - enabling grape growers the opportunity to grow a wide range of varietals in a very small area.

One aspect of South African terroir that still needs to be explored fully is height above sea level. And this wine is a great example of what Shiraz at 750 m above sea level can do. The wine is named after my chance meeting with a little boy called William on the Witzenberg mountains. It’s been a fascinating story from the start, but became even more bizarre at the end of last year, with another chance meeting.