Between Heaven and Earth
It is wonderful to visit a
wine route and to see such impressive improvement in the wines in their style
and quality. The Hemel and Aarde has
always produced good wines, they seem to stick with what they grow best and now
we are finding some that are truly exceptional , and there is a such marked rise in quality and enjoyment
throughout at some farms. Terroir plays
a huge part but so does very careful and knowledgeable viticulture and wine
making . They know and really understand their area, its climate and its assets
and drawbacks and are maximising every worthwhile aspect to aid the production
of these wines. Platter’s Red wine of
the year comes from Newton Johnson and it is so deserved. We spent a lot of time with winemakers
discussing what they are trying to do and learnt a lot more about an area we
know and love to visit.
They tell us that sales up,
despite the recession and the prolonged
road building in the area. The
dirt road between Hermanus and Caledon is being turned into a good tarred road,
some parts will be dual carriageway but it is taking a very long time. Now the
developer seems to have stalled at a crucial point and no one is sure what will
happen next. The current dirt road should not deter you however, we had a couple of very easy trips up and
down it, and apparently it has not deterred other visitors over the holiday
period.
After this last wonderful
wet winter we all assumed the Cape would have a great harvest but sadly with the recent rains and
escalating heat and damp from wet earth, many farms, in many areas are having to deal with severe mildew and
late ripening. Harvest will definitely
be moving into February in many areas.
All the grapes we have seen in the last couple of weeks are still very
small and the reds had not yet started to colour.
Our first visit was to
Ataraxia to taste the wines made by
Kevin Grant. The Greek church-inspired tasting room is positioned high up on a
hill overlooking the valley and facing towards Caledon
with Philippe Starck furniture and abstract art in the interior
and windows which give wonderful views of the valley
His Sauvignon Blanc is exactly the style we
love to drink, crisp and full of minerality, full of green notes without any
tropical flavours. We tasted the newly
released 2013 and were not disappointed, it is another stunner. New on his list is a lovely full, wooded
citrussy and buttery 2013 chardonnay, extremely easy to drink but with lots of
class and length. His usual mystery
blend of Southern French varietals, Serenity
2009 blew us away and Lynne had to come home with a case of it. It has cinnamon
on brown sugar on raspberries on the nose and the wine is jam packed full of mulberries, raspberries, red and
black cherries and leads to a little espresso and some chalky tannins. Soft and
delicious on the palate this will last for ages.
Ataraxia vineyards
and another view of the tasting lounge
Elmarie Pretorius, who runs the Ataraxia tasting room with informed charm
Next we were off up the valley to Creation, a farm we visit quite often.
The wines were ably shown to us by Karlé in appropriate Riedel glasses and this does make a difference
This time we really liked their 2012 Viognier full of apricots and peaches with floral notes and some fresh crisp acidity with a little salt to finish. We tasted two Pinot Noirs and found the 2011 has much riper fruit on the nose with a sweet and sour taste while the Reserve has liquorice, violets and incense on the nose with strawberry and raspberry while the palate shows chewy tannins and lots of licorice with cherries and raspberries. Definitely a food wine. Their Bordeaux Blend is huge and we particularly liked the soft sweet fruit of the Syrah/Grenache full of blackcurrants, cinnamon, liquorice and cloves. It has lots of depth and is delicious.
Philip, the friendly and helpful tasting room manager
The tasting room is also a restaurant and you can do all sorts of food and wine pairings
and then we went home for a braai
© John & Lynne Ford, Adamastor & Bacchus 2013
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