Description
Country : South Africa
Grape Variety : Pinot Noir
The epitome of cool climate elegance. This award-winning Pinot Noir is produced from grapes grown in the cool, high altitude vineyards of Hemel-en-Aarde in the Walker Bay wine region. Silky strawberry and raspberry fruit, with seductively spicy, rounded oak. Absolutely delicious.
Tasting Note : Fresh strawberry and cherry fruit on the nose. The palate is elegant, well balanced and understated, with smooth texture and lots of ripe strawberry and raspberry fruit rounded off by subtle, spicy oak.
Food Pairing : Roast chicken; tuna steak; monkfish; wild mushroom risotto. Or just because you feel like it.
More info : This is an incredible Pinot Noir, restrained and elegant in style, and quite unlike most New World Pinots. Due to the low-vigour stoney-clay soils, high altitude of the vineyards – these are the last Pinots to be picked in the area – and the cooling influence of the nearby ocean, the wine retains lightness, freshness and balance. Not a typical South African Pinot Noir, and if you close your eyes it could be Burgundy. Not at that price, though … a similar quality Burgundy would be at least twice the price.
Winery : Co-owner, viticulturist and winemaker, Kevin Grant, states that ‘our mission is to get our dirt into the bottle with minimum intervention’. Kevin and wife Hanli bought this 47-hectare estate in 2004. They were attracted by the unique terroir of the area, the lofty altitude of the vineyards and their location in the Southernmost tip of the Cape, allowing the cultivation of grape varieties which thrive in a cooler climate. Grape varieties are matched to the individual soil types, with most of the vineyards on cool, south-facing slopes. For Kevin it’s all about the terroir, and this comes through in these unique, mineral, elegantly balanced wines.
