White space terrifies me.

Whether it’s a blank pricey watercolour sheet, notation sheet, or even lined paper. So much expectation, so many options, and so much opportunity. Where to start?

By understanding that it’s the spaces in between, the ‘negative spaces’ that make the difference, and allow the measured strokes that you choose to make truly shine. There is beauty in simplicity. And these are simple, but lekker wines. Less is, indeed, more.

Grapes sourced from a WIETA certified grower in Robertson who farms sustainably with little to no pesticides. No capsule needed. The lightest weight bottle and recyclable bio-green, plant-based polymer carbon-neutral corks. And opting for cotton not paper for the label and minimal printing (room to personalise with your own doodles).

Doing less through the winegrowing to do more for the environment.

The Wines:

Less is More Chardonnay 2022: a lovely nose of tinned pineapples, pears, juicy lemons, ripe yellow apples. Dry, high acidity, medium bodied, with a more generous finish than expected. Melon joins the fruit salad, along with some gentle grapefruit peel texture that lends weight to the otherwise lighter mouthfeel.

Less is More Pinotage 2020: juicy ripe red & black cherries, mulberries, dark plums, star anise, cloves, and subtle 5 spice laden sticky oyster sauce reduction. Fresh acidity, fuller bodied but not heavy, noticeable but pleasant alcohol, delicious grainy tannins that always take me straight to guava peels, and a good lengthy finish. 

Viti + Vini:

Chardonnay:

100% Chardonnay grapes grown on Red Clay Karoo and alluvial Kogmanskloof soil.

Fermented at 16ºC in stainless steel tanks, then matured on its lees for 6 months with regular lees stirring to maximise flavour. Unwooded

Alcohol 13 %  |  TA 6.0 g/l  |  RS 3.4 g/l  |  pH 3.40 

Pinotage: 

100% Pinotage grown on weathered Shale.

Crushed and then fermented at 28ºC . The wine underwent MLC before being pumped into a combination of 2nd fill and new oak barrels where it was aged for 16 months

Alc 14.5%  |  TA 5.5 g/l   |   RS 2.5 g/l   |   pH 3.48

Certifications for both wines: Integrated Production of Wine (IPW)  |   Wine Industry Ethical Trade Association (WIETA)   |  The Sustainability Initiative of South Africa (SIZA)

Find the Wines:

https://www.lessismorewine.com/ though, I picked mine up from the lovelies at Tops Constantia Village.