Out of the Blue

Award winning Blue White Chenin Blanc has developed a reputation as an innovator in the South African wine world, and out of the blue comes a new competition for the country’s artists. Old Vines Wine Cellars is running a bottle painting competition to see just how creative you can be.

Old Vines owners, Cape Wine Master Irina von Holdt and daughter, Fran Botha, are proud of Blue White’s role in reshaping the future of Chenin Blanc for South Africa by focusing attention on the variety.

Blue White has been consistently rated as one of South Africa’s top Chenins, scoring highly in the annual WINE magazine Chenin Blanc Challenge, and being rated best South African Chenin by Wine of the Month Club’s panel both in 2000 and 2002.

Says Fran, “now in a new way, we would like to celebrate the creative spirit that is so strong in this country and offer all artists the opportunity to decorate a bottle in the most innovative way they know. It is a celebration of life, art and style.”

Either buy a bottle or phone the winery to get an empty bottle for decoration and yours could be the one that is selected to be used for an annual limited release of individually numbered bottles to be sold to collectors throughout the world. The winning bottle, along with the runners up, will also go on show both locally and internationally.

There are no limits on creativity. The bottle can be painted, sandblasted, enamelled or any medium used.

The finalists will all be invited to an awards ceremony in Cape Town where the winner will receive a prize of a week’s holiday in Mauritius and the runners up 10 cases of wine each. The closing date for submission of entries is 10 October 2002.

For an entry form, contact Old Vines on tel. (021) 685-6428 or fax (021) 685-6446 or e-mail fran@oldvines.co.za