2020 Storm ‘Ignis’ Pinot Noir, Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, South Africa

$59.99, shipping included on 6 bottles or more

The story of winemaker Hannes Storm closely parallels the development of South Africa’s Hemel-en-Aarde (‘Heaven and Earth’ in Afrikaans) appellation, part of the larger Walker Bay zone on the Atlantic coast. Storm got his winemaking start with Sir Anthony Hamilton-Russell at the seminal Hamilton-Russell winery, the winery that put the Walker Bay appellation on the world map and continues to be its largest and best-loved address there. After twelve harvests at H-R, Storm found himself two organically-farmed vineyards of his own nearby and, with Hamilton-Russell’s blessing and support, began the process of creating his own winery. Just a bit earlier, Hemel-en-Aarde had divided itself into three distinct sub-zones or wards within the greater appellation, each with attributes unique enough to justify their independence and, after obtaining a third vineyard a few years later, Storm found himself in possession of a vineyard in each, the only Hemel-en-Aarde producer who can say that. These three wards, Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, the Upper Valley and the Ridge run progressively northward from the ocean and the beautiful town of Hermanus with the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge being the furthest north, beginning some 13 kilometers from the town. The Pinot Noir vines here, at some 330 meters high, ripen later than further down the valley and create wines with more finesse and purity.
Storm places an enormous amount of attention to picking times, and ferments using mostly whole clusters in stainless steel tanks before aging the wine in small Burgundy barriques for a year, about a quarter of which are new. The wines are released only after 15 months resting in bottle when they’ve had a proper amount of time to lose their baby fat and begin to show their stuff. The 2020 Ignis is a very pure, quite understated, very charming version of Pinot Noir with hints of wet earth, pine and spice in a compote of warm cherry fruit that runs from yellow to red. I found that this very focused, rather austere style of Pinot really showed its best with a little air and, though we don’t normally recommend decanting Pinot Noir, this is one that might benefit from it. Play to its lovely earthiness with dishes focused on wild mushrooms, dried or fresh herbs and something with enough richness for this wine to cut through. So pretty! So unique. The rest of the world should be on notice- South Africa is making some stunning Pinot!