Cloof lovers will have noticed a disproportionate number of blends in our assortment. Our only white wine, Daisy Darling, is a blend, and so are the majority of the red wines we bottle. Apart from the fact that it's a heap of fun spending a couple of hours deliberating over a tableful of tank and barrel samples, we find that the wines just end up being very much better balanced, and a whole lot more interesting.

We're constantly amazed at the enormous difference that results when a constituent is increased or decreased by only 1%. As we play around with different components the blends' compositions are entered into an Excel spreadsheet, hence the need for the laptop in the foreground of the picture alongside.

Our devotion to our collection of blends is such that we've set up a special-purpose website redblends.co.za., which offers a mixed six-pack of our red blends at a discount of over R200. It's also a little experiment for us, because our order page is currently positioned behind a login at cloof.co.za, and is therefore less user-friendly than an order page that is accessed immediately.

So, what do you get for R259, instead of the usual R465:

Lynchpin – our Bordeaux-style blend has received rave reviews from top UK wine writers and Masters of Wine
Duckitt – this blend of Merlot and Cabernet is an interesting counter-point to the richness of our Shiraz-based wines
The Cloof Cellar Blend – hugely popular in numerous countries around the world, this blend is "the Quentin Tarantino remake of Sideways"
The Dark Side – this hedonistic blend of Cabernet and Shiraz has curves where others don't have places
Inkspot – Four Stars in Platter (amazing for a wine at this price) for this blend of Pinotage/Shiraz/Cinsaut have helped it become our biggest-selling red wine
Happy Dragon – the wine that tamed the thirst of a goat-eating dragon is a Mediterranean-style blend of Pinotage and Shiraz

We apologise for any confusion that results from having two different online ordering points!