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A paradise for winegrowing

Heaven and Earth – that is the name, but in Afrikaans, for this valley nestled between arid mountains and the cool ocean, a location that makes it a paradise for winegrowing.

Not for nothing are vineyards in Hemel en Aarde carving out a global reputation among wine lovers seeking a fresh, distinctive flavour.

Winemakers here do not try to imitate the big European names, which can often be a stifling benchmark.

Instead, they produce wines with a strong South African identity – wines whose savour tells the story of their distant birthplace and bring with them the heritage from the first Huguenot plantations in the 1600s.

“We are not really New World and not Old World,” said winemaker Emul

Ross, flanked by his boss Anthony Hamilton Russell.

“We are not trying to be Burgundy, we are closer to that style of pinot noir than New Zealand or Oregon, which have more sweetness, more fruit.”

Russell bought 52 hectares of land from his family in the early 1990s.

The estate produces a red and a white wine from Burgundy grape varieties of eastern-central France.

The soils have high clay percentages, similar to those in Cote de Nuits, and “in blind tastings sometimes, our wines are thought as Burgundian”, said Russell, despite different climatic conditions.

Harvest this year has been late, taking place in southern hemisphere’s early autumn.

For South African winegrowers in general, it has been a terrible year, marked by the coronavirus pandemic and bans on the sale of alcohol.

But Hemel en Aarde has suffered less than others, thanks to its reputation for quality and less dependence on volume compared to other regions. –