Pinot noir Tasting at Braemar

If you do not know who or what Braemar is …then clearly you have missed out!

Braemar is the residence of Anthony and Olive Hamilton Russell situated on Hamilton Russell Vineyards in the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Hermanus, Cape of Good Hope, South Africa.

During the month of December 2011, we were invited to participate in a unique tasting of Pinot noirs from three Hemel-en Aarde appellations together with a few wines from Burgundy.

This is an up and coming region where more wineries that are new are opening, producing some top quality wines. The demarcated appellations are: -

HEMEL-EN-AARDE VALLEY includes Southern Right, Hamilton Russell Vineyards, Ashbourne, Bouchard Finlayson and La Vierge.

UPPER HEMEL-EN-AARDE VALLEY includes Sumaridge, Newton Johnson Vineyards and Spookfontein.

HEMEL-EN-AARDE RIDGE includes Ataraxia Mountain Vineyards, Mount Babylon, Jacobs Vineyards, Creation Wines Domain des Dieux, Chrystallum and La Vierge Collection.

Although we did not taste the entire region, we did however manage eight wineries comparing the different appellations over vintages 2009 and 2010.

In general, the 2009 vintages were by far more elegant than the 2010 vintages, which were constrained, and perhaps requiring time in the bottle. The differences between all the appellations are clear in terms of soil types, age of the vines, winemaking practices and maturation.

As ‘wine is only as good as the taster on the day’ our top wines from the appellations were as follows: -

Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge: - Chrystallum Cuvée Cinéma 2009

Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley: - Newton Johnson 2009

Hemel-en-Aarde Valley: - Hamilton Russell Vineyards 2009

Burgundy: - Alain Hudelot-Noellat Vosne-Romanée 1er Cru Beaumonts 2009

The highlight of the day was definitely a very special magnum opened in honour of the tasting was CIWG Hamilton Russell ‘Grand Vin Noir’ 1982. The only way to describe this wine is phenomenal!

Exciting times ahead for this region and great wines will come from here - without a doubt!

Nikki Dumas

Winestyle.biz 2012