LIQUID INVESTMENTS
MICHAEL FRIDJHON: Hemel-en-Aarde trio of regions stake pinot noir claims
The Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley yields rich, dense wines that are more structured and less immediately accessible
The 2018 Hemel-en-Aarde Pinot Noir Symposium, held annually at the end of January, has come at a very interesting time in the cultivar’s life cycle in the Cape. Introduced commercially in SA less than 40 years ago, it took pinot noir many years to achieve real recognition among the majority of the country’s fine-wine drinkers. Stylistically it was out of step with the fashions of the 1980s and ’90s. The best pinot noirs are refined, delicate, perfumed. In an age when big, rich blockbusters prevailed, its lack of tannin and colour intensity counted against it. Most pinot plantings yielded fruit destined for the production of cap classique, leaving the few dedicated exponents of the still-wine version with a chance to develop a high-value niche. This strategy coincided with the rise of a pinot noir fashion elsewhere in the world. Until the mid-1970s almost all the internationally recognised examples were produced along a narrow strip of land in central France: Burgundy’s Cote d’Or. Th...
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