Hemel-en-Aarde Pinot Noir

Hemel-en-Aarde Pinot Noir

In 1975, Tim Hamilton Russell — a Johannesburg ad executive with no farming background — paid ZAR 58,000 for 170 hectares of enclosed mountain valley and planted Pinot Noir where experts said the "heartbreak grape" would never survive. He was right. The Bokkeveld shale soils here have the same clay content as the Côte d'Or — and Hamilton Russell Chardonnay now appears on 30 Michelin-starred restaurant lists in France. You'll drink it looking at the mountains that inspired the name: Heaven on Earth.