Winemaker Notes
A refined and elegant Pinot Noir, this wine opens with a savory, fruit-forward nose of sour cherry, wild strawberry, red currant, baking spice, and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate is beautifully balanced, featuring fine, velvety tannins and a fresh, pure finish. A faithful expression of its decomposed granite soils, it delivers crisp red fruit, mineral tension, and impressive length—an elegant reflection of its origin.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
n the bottle with the black wax capsule, the Storm 2023 Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley Pinot Noir Ignis opens to smoky campfire ash and savory undertones layered over ripe yet vibrant fruit. The wine feels bright and punchy despite its sultry aromatic profile, finishing with admirable balance and composure. It sees 100% whole-bunch fermentation with cold maceration and native ferments, completes malolactic fermentation in barrel and matures 12 months in French oak, with 28% new oak. The fruit comes from a gentle north-facing slope in the Upper Valley rooted in decomposed granite and shale, soils that contribute both savory complexity and structural lift in this cool-climate pocket of the Cape.
Thin-skinned, finicky and temperamental, Pinot Noir is also one of the most rewarding grapes to grow and remains a labor of love for some of the greatest vignerons in Burgundy. Fairly adaptable but highly reflective of the environment in which it is grown, Pinot Noir prefers a cool climate and requires low yields to achieve high quality. Outside of France, outstanding examples come from in Oregon, California and throughout specific locations in wine-producing world. Somm Secret—André Tchelistcheff, California’s most influential post-Prohibition winemaker decidedly stayed away from the grape, claiming “God made Cabernet. The Devil made Pinot Noir.”
With an important wine renaissance in full swing, impressive red and white bargains abound in South Africa. The country has a particularly long and rich history with winemaking, especially considering its status as part of the “New World.” In the mid-17th century, the lusciously sweet dessert wines of Constantia were highly prized by the European aristocracy. Since then, the South African wine industry has experienced some setbacks due to the phylloxera infestation of the late 1800s and political difficulties throughout the following century.
Today, however, South Africa is increasingly responsible for high-demand, high-quality wines—a blessing to put the country back on the international wine map. Wine production is mainly situated around Cape Town, where the climate is generally warm to hot. But the Benguela Current from Antarctica provides brisk ocean breezes necessary for steady ripening of grapes. Similarly, cooler, high-elevation vineyard sites throughout South Africa offer similar, favorable growing conditions.
South Africa’s wine zones are divided into region, then smaller districts and finally wards, but the country’s wine styles are differentiated more by grape variety than by region. Pinotage, a cross between Pinot Noir and Cinsault, is the country’s “signature” grape, responsible for red-fruit-driven, spicy, earthy reds. When Pinotage is blended with other red varieties, like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah or Pinot Noir (all commonly vinified alone as well), it is often labeled as a “Cape Blend.” Chenin Blanc (locally known as “Steen”) dominates white wine production, with Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc following close behind.