Hannes and Nathalia Storm are a husband and wife team focusing on producing pinot noir and chardonnay from Hemel-en-Aarde, which means “Heaven-and-Earth” in Afrikaans. It’s one of South Africa’s coolest wine-producing regions, just a few kilometers away from the Atlantic Ocean on the Cape South Coast. They are the only producer with pinot noirs in each of the Hemel-en-Aarde’s three wards (the Hemel-en-Aarde Valley, the Upper Hemel-en-Aarde Valley at slightly higher elevations, and the Hemel-en-Aarde Ridge with vineyards up to 400 meters above sea level).

The timing of our 2022 harvest was similar to 2021 but a touch later than average. Ripening was slow and extended, and the harvest was fortunately complete before the first rains in early March. The preceding winter was our wettest in 24 years. The skies absolutely opened up from early May, filling soil reservoirs and dams, making sunbathers giddy, and satisfying the vineyards’ extreme thirst. Then, come September, we winemakers shifted from a rain dance to a winegrowing dance, and, miraculously, all precipitation stopped, allowing for a perfect, healthy, and even bud break. The summer weather was glorious. The vintage proceeded smoothly and delivered opulent, pure, generously textured wines. In short, the 2022 vintage shows (for the first time) quality along with quantity – yields were appreciably up from 2021’s extremely low yields.