Minimalist Wines Experimental Grenache Noir 2022

  Studying Oenology at South Africa's Stellenbosch University while working in the town's boutique wine store, Hawk & Schoon, and passing WSET3 (with distinctions), were the starting points for Sam's wine education. But the passion kicked in while working harvests under the leading Cape winemakers Carl van der Merwe, Lukas van Loggerenberg and Chris Alheit.  It was then he discovered that making good wine is all about working with good grapes and good people… and the importance of treating them both gently in the vineyard and the cellar. It was also the beginning of Sam's love affair with Syrah. He launched Minimalist Wines, aged 21, to explore its diversity in South African terroir and to showcase its elegant power in the cooler climate vineyards of the Cape.   We harvest in the cool, early hours of the morning, into 14kg Lug boxes and transport grapes back to the cellar in refrigerated trucks where they are allowed to cool overnight. After gentle foot-stomping and crushing with one third whole-bunch, one third wholeberry and one third destemmed this vintage, natural fermentation gets underway, at its own pace, in a combination of open and closed fermenters. Once complete, we macerate gently with a single, daily pumpover/punchdown. One third wholebunch fermented, one third wholeberry and one third destemmed. I played around with the idea of blending some Syrah into this but decided it's purity and elegance had to be the star of the show.