A town nearby
Hemel-en-Aarde Valley
Pinot noir and chardonnay country, narrow enough to cycle end to end.
40 minutes from the estate
'Heaven and Earth' — a single narrow valley running inland from Hermanus, and the best pinot noir in the country comes out of it. Cool air off Walker Bay and clay in the soil do something here that the rest of the Cape cannot copy.
How it got here
Anthony Hamilton Russell's father planted pinot noir here in 1975, against every piece of advice available at the time, on the argument that the maritime climate was closer to Burgundy than anywhere else in South Africa. He was right, and everything else in the valley followed him.
What to do there
- Taste along the valley road — the wards climb as you go, and the wines change with them
- Cycle it: the valley is short enough to ride end to end in a morning
- Stop for lunch at one of the estates rather than driving back into town
Worth knowing
- Three wards: Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley and Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge
- Pinot noir and chardonnay are what to drink here; almost everything else is grown better elsewhere
More near the estate
Everything within about an hour.
