31 Jul Redefining the Meaning of Cool | Bloemcool New Vintages
This month, Fairview is proud to reveal the latest vintages of our most exclusive wine range, Bloemcool, with the newest releases including:
- Bergbok 2017
- Groendruif 2017
- Hou Moed 2015
- Tinto Fino 2015
- Dr De Jager 2016
Bloemcool was created with the intention to act as an extension of our winemaking team’s creativity, offering them a blank canvas to highlight the true art that the Fairview team is capable of making. After all, while Fairview is known for producing a variety of diverse wines that run the gamut of styles and price points, this range gives opportunity to really shine a light on the edgier and craftier side of the farm’s skill set. As winemaker Stephanie Wiid explains:
“Everything about Bloemcool is an art – from how we work the vineyards, look after the wines in the cellar, select the barrels, the way the wax is dipped for every bottle or even the way each label is carefully placed on by hand. There is a bit of magic in making such small batches that really comes from the winemaker’s heart,” she says.
First introduced in late 2015, Bloemcool is a relatively new and exciting project for us at Fairview. However, the story of Bloemcool is not new at all. In fact, it stems back to 1693 and the very start of Fairview, back then called Bloemkoolfontein, a farm originally owned by Francois Hugo. In Hugo’s time, his chosen modus operandi was to collect used, empty wine bottles from neighbouring winemakers, which he and his mom would then repurpose by scraping the existing labels off by hand and reusing them to bottle their farm’s wine.
Centuries later, the spirit of Bloemkoolfontein is revived, with small-batch, handcrafted wines being poured into hand-selected, recycled bottles. Naturally, in typical Charles Back character, the name received a slight 21st century update, taking the original Dutch name from ‘kool’ to ‘cool’, and thus invoking tradition and highlighting the concept of buy – drink – plant – eat. Eat? Yes, you read that right!
The Bloemcool labels all have cauliflower seeds embedded into the paper, with the vision being to remove the label once you’ve finished enjoying your favourite bottle of Bloemcool, place it onto some moist cotton wool on a sunny, well-ventilated windowpane, and in a few weeks, harvest your very own ‘bloemcool’, encouraging the new keeper of the wine to let the story of Bloemcool perpetually live on. With the new vintages being released and many more concepts ready in the making, it is quickly becoming evident that Bloemcool is not a once off marketing campaign, but rather a curated innovation coming from a producer that is continually set on growing and redefining the meaning of ‘cool’.
Due to the small quantities produced, all available Bloemcool wines are exclusively available to purchase via Fairview’s online shop, www.fairview.co.za, or at the Fairview Master Tasting Room.
