In the past Epileptic Inspiration consisted of 100% Elgin vineyards – a straight Semillon. With the 2018 and 2019 we tried something different. Blending in a Baardskeerdersbos Semillon at one third. But with the 2020 we felt like the best is to stick to the basics and keep it in all Elgin. The wine therefore is a combination of Amphora & old French oak fermented/aged components. Personally I feel, due to extremely hard vineyard work by the owner Andre van Wyk, his team Marthinus and Patric, assisted by viticulturist Jaco Engelbrecht, this is up to date our best expression of Epileptic Inspiration.

The Story

“Epileptic Inspiration 2013? You have no respect!”, a Swiss guy told me on a recent trip to Zurich.

Since the beginning of BLANKbottle, I have been designing my own labels. At first, it was because there was absolutely no way I could afford designers. I made use of Microsoft Word, typed BLANKbottle, placed it into a block and played around with the colours – no designing skills required at all. And, to be honest, for the first 10 years I actually didn’t like my labels much (besides maybe the honesty of it). Every year, I would again have to fight off the desire to employ professional label designers.

For those of you who don’t know this: I started having Epilepsy at the age of 30. Then in November 2013, whilst not on medication, I had another huge epileptic fit (the second one ever). So the Dr booked me off driving and surfing, yet again. When I have a fit, what happens to me at first is that I forget everything. My long term memory returns quite soon thereafter (within hours), but I find that my short term analytical memory takes about 2-3 months to return – if at all…

And this is how I started to design my new labels for the 2013 wines. I could not look at the computer due to the flickering screen. So I started making use of scissors, paint, Lino, pencil and old paper. And the result: I think I had a breakthrough in design, inspiration of Epileptic proportions.

So the drawing and design of my own labels came as a direct result of my epilepsy. And here’s the strange part which I cannot prove – I believe that something in my brain changed due to epilepsy. Before epilepsy I had no skill or desire to draw paint etc. Now I still don’t have the skill, but at least I like my labels! All 47 of them.

ALCOHOL (%): 14.38

RESIDUAL SUGAR (g/L): 2.6

TOTAL ACIDITY (g/L): 5.12

PH: 3.59

Voice recording: