This vineyard is something really special to me as well as the Farmer, Andre van Wyk. 100% Elgin Weisser Riesling. It has a firm acidity – the 2012 drinking beautifully at the moment. My aim is not to imitate German-style Rieslings – we try to capture the South African sunlight in this wine…

The Story

Some of my German clients think that the “branding” of “IM HINTERHOFKABUFF” was neatly thought through, specially and specifically designed to enter and crack the German wine market for BLANKbottle. And yes, the fact that I called the wine a dialect/regional/nickname sort of German name does make the wine sell in Germany. But the truth is that I cannot take credit for it at all, I am just not all that strategical. The truth is: it fell in my lap.

Early in 2010, a journalist writing for a huge German magazine called the “Stern” phoned me. He was writing an article on South African wineries to visit, aiming it at touring soccer world cup fans. At the time and still today my office is located next to my winery in a very old dilapidated barn type of building. When I moved in I transferred the run down barn into a personal office/lounge with a nice Friday braai facility at the back. No flags, no signage, no fountains – just a run down building with skew walls and heaps of soul.

I told that very persistent German journalist that he could not meet me at the office, that we should rather try a coffee shop. It’s much nicer.  As you know, some people don’t take no for an answer, and he was one of them. So he came out to the farm, loved all of it and spent almost 3 hours with me tasting wine and taking pictures.

Three months later my sister-in-law living in Switzerland phoned me to say that there was a massive article on South African wineries in the Stern and that BLANKbottle featured. So she emailed me the article and with the help of family I started to decipher the article. This guy kept on using the word HINTERHOFKABUFF whenever he referred to my office. So I looked it up. In old Berlin, Germany, a typical residential property would have a main house where the owner lived, and then had a sort of second house at the back called the HINTERHOF where a second family would live.  And at the back of the HINTERHOF they usually had a KABUFF. Which was a little garden sort of shack-house for the very poor people to live in. So the direct translation of HINTERHOFKABUFF – BACKYARDSHACK…

I took an immediate liking to the name and my mom made a sign for my office. “The Hinterhofkabuff”.

So when I made my first Weisser Riesling, a varietal that originated in the Rhine Valley Germany – it was logical to find a proper German name for it. Hence: Im Hinterhofkabuff!

Technical Information

Cultivar: Weisser Riesling (100%)

Vintage: 2022

Region: Elgin

Amount of Bottles Produced: 2155

Vineyard: Vines grow on a rocky outcrop in the cool climate Elgin valley 260m above sea-level on a SE aspect. Vines trained according to the vertical shoot positioning method on a traditional 3 wire trellis system.
Winemaking: The grapes were picked at optimal ripeness and cooled overnight to 4 degrees celsius. The next morning the grapes were de-stemmed and after a few hours skin contact pressed with no additives. The juice underwent spontaneous fermentation in various vessels, French oak (nothing new) and clay pots. Deep winter the wine received sulfur, its only additive. 10 months on the leese, blended and bottled.

Alcoholic Strenght: 13%/vol

Acidity: 5.86g/l

PH: 3.14

Reducing Sugar: 5.27g/l

Free SO2: 38mg/l

Total SO2: 73mg/l

Volatile Acidity: 0.65g/l

Closure: Natural Cork

Vegan: Yes

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