The Liberator Wine

🇿🇦 Rick says: Coming soon to an independent merchant near you… 🌑🌒🌒🌓🌗🌖🌕😏

And, of course available in due course from Dreyfus Ashby, UK…

The Foundry Grenache Blanc 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ and Grenache Blanc of the Year 2024

We are thrilled to be awarded Grenache Blanc of the Year and 5 stars by Platter’s by Diners Club South African Wine Guide 2024. We are so proud of this wine, and we can’t wait to share it with you.

This is the second time the Grenache Blanc has won Wine of the Year.

This wine will be released in early 2024. In the meantime, you can get your hands on the 2021 vintage of this fine Grenache Blanc on Ex Animo Wine Co. and sign up to their newsletter to find out when it becomes available.

Minnie Mouse has got it all sewn up
She gets more fan mail than the Pope
She takes the mickey out of all my phobias…

That’s the best problem with Walt Disney. It’s a Mickey Mouse operation…

Coming Soon.
The Sisters of the Moon… 🇿🇦🍷

One for all those climate change deniers out there. This is today in the Berry. It’s what we call in the wine trade a bit of a f**k up.

He’s back - Episode 38, ‘Knick-Knack, Paddywhack’ … Give the dog a Beaune. Well, it had to be done.

Technical Information:

Producer: Glen Carlou
The Wine: 100% Chardonnay
Vintage: 2021
Wine of Origin: Simonsberg-Paarl
Alcohol: 13.5%
Bottles: 335 cases
Released: January 2023

Episode 38 is a logical follow up to the hugely successful Episode 17, with which it shares the same title. After all, the play on words works equally as well with the classic white grape of Burgundy as it does with Pinot Noir…

The label, however, is something of a hybrid, since it shares an uncanny likeness to Episode 19 – ‘The Teeth of the Dog’. Indeed, this distinguished Chardonnay enjoys the same provenance, made by the extremely talented Johnnie Calitz in the cellars of Glen Carlou.

Followers of ‘The Teeth of the Dog’ should not be disappointed with the end result.

Rick says: This old man was only too happy to give this notable dog a home.

Stockists listed below and in the comments…

Further to popular demand, Rick has just commissioned two updated Liberator posters:
Episodes 1 to 36
Special Editions 1 to 36

Should you be interested in acquiring one (or both), email [email protected] for pricing, to include packaging and postage to addresses in the UK.

'Worcester Sauce'

Technical Information:

Producer: Nuy Winery
The Wine: Red Muscadel
Vintage: 2021
Wine of Origin: Worcester
Alcohol: 17.5%
Cans (250ml): 4,000 cans
Released: February 2022
Rick would be the first person to embrace innovation and help pioneer new formats. The wine trade has been speculating about the future of wine in cans for some time now. Many have tipped them to be the ‘next big thing’, whilst others would not be seen dead opening ‘a cold one’…

***

Nuy (pronounced Nay) Red Muscadel is something of a Cape classic. It wins acclaim with every vintage although is barely known outside of South Africa. The cellar was established in 1963 and is situated at the foot of the Langeberg mountain range which defines the Worcester wine region.

Muscadel is the local name for Muscat de Frontignan. The production method involves mulching the grapes and allowing the juice to remain in contact with the skins for up to 48 hours. After separation, the skins are pressed and the must fortified, with very little fermentation having taken place.

***

Rick’s Treatise on wine in a Tin

It is no secret that wine sales internationally are declining and whilst the snobbery associated with the subject is not wholly to blame, any resistance to innovation could be.

One only needs to consider the growth in the interest and sales of canned craft beer to understand how the concept has been embraced by a wider audience. Vibrant and often fiercely independent packaging with 360-degrees of graphics have also captured the imagination of the millennial generation of drinkers in the way that wine, in the most part, has not.

The beauty of canned wine is in its simplicity, as there is no need to search in vain for a corkscrew or even grab some glasses, wine in a tin can be enjoyed anywhere and at any time. The smaller size of this format has clear benefits and allows for the wine to be chilled much quicker and keeps it fresh.

Not to be overlooked are the environmental credentials of any canned drinks, which are a credible alternative to both plastic and glass bottles. The impact of single-use plastics has dominated the news over the last few years, and it has become crucial to find a solution to this. From the point of production to the point of recycling, aluminium is considerably more efficient and has a much lower carbon footprint.

Cans are also free of TCA (aka ‘cork taint’), an affliction that has forever blighted wines offered in traditional packaging, regardless of their relative quality.

Should wine in a can be judged as being any better or worse than that presented in a glass bottle…? No, not at all.

Whilst some will aim to can mostly inexpensive, industrial-quality grade wines, which could potentially undermine the category, it is the objective of Rick to offer only the finest of South African liberations to his loyal band of followers, with Liberator fans able to enjoy the same diverse selection of wines, produced mostly in small, finite quantities, as they would expect to find in conventional Liberator bottles.

It will simply allow more drinkers an opportunity to experiment, with wines presented in an alternative and convenient single-serve format, rather than having to invest in opening a whole bottle.

Rick in a tin… What is not to love?

All the Wounded Creatures “Mal Bek”

Technical Information:

Producer: Glen Carlou
The Wine: 90% Malbec 10% Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2018
Wine of Origin: Simonsberg-Paarl
Alcohol: 14.5%
Cans (250ml): 3,840 cans
Released: November 2021

This Special Edition Malbec in a can celebrates madness.

When roughly translated from Afrikaans, mal bek refers to someone with a ‘bad’ or ‘crazy mouth’. It’s not meant or used as a derogative term. One would use it with affection to describe someone suffering from ‘verbal diarrhoea’. Rick can instantly think of several candidates who would easily qualify.

The reference to ‘all the wounded creatures’ was lifted from an interview with Roger Waters, the man responsible for the lyrics on ‘Dark Side of the Moon’, the 1973 Pink Floyd album, which had madness as its core theme.

The label illustration sets off on a different tangent for Liberator design. It is a small extract from a series of very personal drawings. Full of protest, they are created at night when madness is permitted to rule and takeover. The images are never commissioned, but just manifest on the paper by themselves, acting as a form of therapy and meditation for our anonymous artist.

Rick says, ‘If you’ve invested in a can of this particular wounded creature, sit back, pour a large glass, grab that old vinyl copy of ‘Dark Side’ and switch off the lights…’

For those not in possession of the requisite, vintage Dansette, here’s an alternative piece of art you can tune in (and drop out) to instead:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ZRNPUmwAOY

This link dates back to circa 1979. It’s an animated film that accompanied ‘City of Tiny Lites’ by Frank Zappa on The Old Grey Whistle Test, a progressive music programme aired weekly on the BBC, that was compulsive viewing at the time for an 18 year old Rick…

Episode 36 – This is the Sea

Technical Information:

Producer: Confidential
The Wine: 100% Albariño
Vintage: 2021
Wine of Origin: Coastal Region
Alcohol: 11%
Bottles: 9000 bottles
Released: November 2021
These things you keep
You better throw them away
Turn your back
On your soulless days
Once you were tethered
Now you are free
That was the river
This is the sea

MIKE SCOTT – THIS IS THE SEA

Albariño (or Alvarinho, as it is known in northern Portugal) cuttings were first imported into South Africa by Newton Johnson Vineyards in the early part of the last decade, sourcing plant material from UC Davis in California. This was on the back of the unwelcome revelation that vines originally planted in Australia are, in fact, Savagnin, owing to a labelling error in a Spanish nursery collection.

Today, there are just a handful of producers in the Winelands who have access to the variety. Despite its rarity, Rick has some useful contacts…

This parcel was planted as an experimental block by one of the Cape’s major producers, but with no natural home for the wine, it was destined to be blended away into a large tank of Sauvignon Blanc. Unfortunately (or fortunately for Liberator followers) the domestic market is still getting to grips with this exotic-sounding variety. It was considered by the company marketeers to be too tough a sell…

Fresh acidity balances the full body and firm structure of the wine and, with a maritime note, it reminds Rick how well the wine matches seafood.

The lobster or spiny lobster (aka cray in the Cape) seems a fitting illustration for Episode 36.

Artwork courtesy of Claire Griffiths Cgriffithsart

Episode 35 – ‘Dial P for Pinot’

Technical Information:

Producer: Glen Carlou
The Wine: 100% Pinot Noir
Vintage: 2020
Wine of Origin: Simonsberg-Paarl
Alcohol: 14%
Bottles: 1,200 bottles
Released: November 2021
So, Rick asks, where exactly would one store weapons grade uranium needed to detonate an atomic bomb…? Well, inside a bottle of 1934 Pommard, of course…

A passionate oenophile, film director and master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock’s decision to secrete the uranium ore within a bottle of 1934 Pommard as part of the plot in his 1946 motion picture Notorious, reflects his passion for fine Burgundy.

But Hitch’s love of introducing his audience to the delights of the Côte d’Or doesn’t end there. In an early scene within the 1954 movie, Rear Window, there is another Burgundy mentioned, when Grace Kelly (no relation to Rick) pours an eyebath of a glass for James Stewart and whispers with soft excitement ‘It’s a Montrachet’.

Except there’s an unexpected mystery here. The original movie was filmed in black and white but later ‘restored’ to colour when, if one observes closely, Le Montrachet miraculously turns from white to red…

Surely an erroneous error by the people at Technicolor…? One which would have had Hitchcock outraged with their lack of attention to detail…

Dial P for Pinot Noir, obviously.